15% Ethanol Fuel? [LOCKED DUE TO POLITICS]

[GPSMan]

Ha! I make the salt for Wendy's. It's salt. 99.9% good ol' fashioned NaCl. Sea salt ladies and gentlemen is also NaCl. "But doesn't it contain lots of other trace minerals?" It depends. If you make it yourself, maybe. But most people can't make their own sea salt. Try it and it may be an eye opener. Mass produced industrial scale sea salt is 99.89 to 99.98% NaCl. Regulations require you to take all the "other" stuff out! Don't ya love Big Brother? But really, it's more for consistency and reliability of product. Wendy's, Bakeries, Cheese makers all want consistent product day in and day out. And the "sodium content" better match what the label says day in and day out. Mother nature is not that consistent. Thus salt "refineries" were born to make consistent, exactly the same salt day after day, week after week, year after year. While not really a drug, the manufacturing requirements are nearly as stringent. What do I think? Buy the cheap stuff. Only hand crafted small batches of "boutique" salts can have added flavors. All the big brands are exactly the same. Same health benefits and detriments, unless you get specific products that are "blended" with other minerals. I have one at home that is 66% KCl and 34% NaCl because I want to lower my blood pressure. Hence "lower sodium salt" that has been cut with potassium chloride, for less blood pressure effects.

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[Maverick2022XL]

You missed the part earlier on where I pointed out how the people who really set oil prices are the guys at the commodities exchange, and how gas prices are based on that but still pretty arbitrary. And like stock prices, commodities prices can be really volatile depending on the news. For example, there's a minor local grain shortage due to Ukrainian production taking a hit, and all of a sudden grain commodities in the US go into panic buy mode.

It's not a "new narrative" or "new facts." It's been working like this since before I was born. And all I'm asking is why it has to be this way, when we could make something that works for a lot more than just a few thousand Wall Street fat cats.

Organizations like OPEC control oil and in turn gasoline prices not commodities exchanges and to a lessor extent consumers when they refuse or can't afford to pay the price of said commodity. The US at least until this admistration also controlled the price since the oil is priced in USD on the world markets. The agreement since Nixon dropped Brenton Wood agreement in which the US dollar value was pegged to gold was the oil cartels aka OPEC get US military protection in turn they price oil in the US dollar. They control energy and the US rakes a vig on on all sales. That is how a reserve currency works in modern times. It is a lot bigger than wall street fat cats. Real wealth besides the ability to protect what is valuable is not the value of your currency but it's purchasing power. The old narrative and facts is this going green and against oil without a plan to preserve the purchasing power of the dollar will work as intended to make everyone equally poorer and have a lower standard of living. It would also destroy the US ability to be the top dog on the world stage and reserve world currency, not that that is a bad thing but there are better ways to gracefully exit stage left than what is being done right now without destroying the purchasing power of the US dollar. There is a way to make it work but the people pushing green are like horse's with blinders on and don't see the bigger picture.

 

[Maverick2022XL]

I have been using Ethanol-free gas exclusively in my Focus for over a year now. I get roughly 4 -5 mpg higher than with the 10% Ethanol gas. It runs about $.50 per gallon higher in price though. Probably doesn't really pay for itself, but it's better for the engine. Some Wawa's have a few pumps with the option, the handles are color coded blue.

If ethanol wasn't subsidized as a gift to the corn growers, ethanol cut gas would cost more than ethanol free gas per gallon. It takes more than a gallon of pick your octane of ethanol free gas to produce a gallon of ethanol also figure in the cost of producing it there is no way it can cost less than the cost of that already refined gas used to produce it. Then you burn even more gas to transport it and mix it with gasoline. So that ethanol is also a gift to oil producers since it require mores gas than to just sell uncut gasoline and in turn is less green because we burn more gasoline to produce ethanol than to just not produce it. If we really cared about green then you would at least make ethanol that has a better BTU bang for your buck from sugar cane or beets instead of corn.

 

[atomguy245]

My problem with ethanol is the double subsidy. Not only are we mandated to use it in our gas, but the producers get government benefits as well. Instead of growing corn to burn as fuel, why aren't we growing hemp to replace our dependence on trees? So many other crops we could be growing that wouldn't need a subsidy. But no political wants to cross that mythical small town farmer voter.

 

[LSchicago]

My initial guess would be that higher than 15% ethanol would make for corrosion issues over time. Probably due to coating formulations and all that.

That having been said, there's been so much FUD about ethanol that I know people willing to fight an hour's traffic each way just to fill up with ethanol- free gas from one station out in the middle of nowhere, because they're convinced it'll do I have no idea what.

One footnote on "food shortages"- most of them are distribution based, not supply based. We're growing more than enough corn. Then it hits the commodities exchanges and gets traded around until the fat cats think they've made enough profit. Same with the price of oil- it gets churned around the exchange until someone's made enough profit, *then* it hits the refinery. So the price you pay at the supermarket or pump has no actual relation to the price when the oil is pumped or corn is harvested.

No issues in my Mustang on E85. That's all it burns.

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