E-85 conversion

[Mr. Wyndham]

Supposedly, Some Chinese company and a Canadian Company are doing a 50/50 split in a new company, and are gonna be producing "true commercial" amounts of Cellulosic Ethanol...

I don't know about you all...but I'd rather buy from Canada than the Middle East right now....

[DGthe3]

We are happy to sell it. But I don't know why we still have to buy it from the middle east. Our economics prof told us at one point why we both buy and sell oil, but I didn't really understand. And for ethanol, well I dont think that the Iranians or Saudis could really compete with Canada for ethanol production.

[The_Stache]

Cellulose ethanol

While a great idea.. its yet to be put into production, the technology isnt here for it yet. It cant be produced on a large scale yet (est another 5-10 years from the EPA to get it done).

There is no single solution.

E85 while great.. isn't a complete solution as it still gives off emissions and gives less mileage per gallon and still isn't widely available (as of summer 07 only about 1200 E85 stations nation wide)

Pure electric while great.. is expensive and the tech is still developing but for the next 5 years is still out of the price range of the normal consumer (GM and toyota are fiercly battling this out right now)

Hybrids are inefficient becuase your hauling 2 drive trains and have all of the problems of the above only mixed together

Hydrogen while great for emissions is technologically expensive.. its feasible but VERY expensive and also has its hazards like gasoline.

Personaly I think Pure electrics are the way to go.. we can convert powerplants the world round to steam plants run off tgeothermal energy(aka hydro electric plants) to create electricity.. and boom its free.

But what do I know I'm just a normal consumer with a college education.

[Mr. Wyndham]

All the expense attributed to these things, all of them. Will come down. Just like anything new, it's gonna be expensive.

But I agree with your "normal consumer with a college education" reasoning

Unfortunately, over the past 5 years the world has suddenly "warmed up"...and whether we actually are 'too late' or whatever remains to be seen. But the effects are that people in general want an instant, overnight solution

It's very hard to provide that, hence E85(or even E100, some developers are working on that now), it can be a temporary solution. I mean, even the Volt, though it has the potential, that range-extending motor still needs to run on somthing...and here's the link about that Canada company.

The first company to solve the problem on a commercial scale is Iogen Energy, located in Ottawa, Canada...the world's first demonstration cellulosic ethanol plant, which is currently turning out on a continual basis more than a million gallons of alcohol "fuel" annually.

and growing......

It's just gonna take time.