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| Off Topic A place for goofing off and interests other than motorcycles. Talk about anything here, but please keep subject matter family oriented. Do not include links to sites that aren't. |
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03-21-2006, 04:09 PM
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| Dastardly villain   Join Date: Sep 2004
Bike: '08 M109R w/LE mods
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Posts: 1,678
 |  Gas prices this summer
I know summer is a little ways away, but I am so glad I have a motorcycle and now I am going to be looking for a diesel car so I can make my own biodiesel gas. Here's why. Gasoline has an additive in it called MTBE. Initially everyone loved it as it raises the octane of the gas and it is relatively cheap. It has now been found that MTBE releases some bad Hydrocarbons into the atmosphere, aka stuff that kills ozone. So there is only one alternative to MTBE, which is ethanol. Now you may be thinking cool, ethanol rocks and is better for the ecosystem. You are pretty much right except for a few things. Ethanol will be substituted as the additive in gasoline this summer, but the US does not have nearly enough plants to produce ethanol from corn to meet the demand that is occuring right now. So when supply doesn't meet demand price goes up, lovely huh? Also, as for E-85, it takes more energy to produce it than it produces when used in a car, and it is very expensive to make and is currently subsidized by the government.Found out about this in my Industrial Organic Chem class today so I thought I'd share. here is a news article that talks about it. In the article they say they are voluntarily removing it, but i was pretty sure it was going in as a law, and the 11% is not 11% of refiners, but 11% of all gasoline. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...lines-business |
