My $0.02, in two parts:
$0.01: Ethanol as currently produced for general fuel use (and this
would basically apply to the E85 also) on average takes the same amount
of energy to make a gallon of the stuff as you get out of the gallon of
ethanol. Based on my own experiments with distillation, it takes a
buncha heat to get much ethanol. The gummint has studied this (GAO I
believe) and come to the same conclusion; the politicians, however, have
other-than-scientific criteria.... Without serious taxpayer subsidies
to the "farmer" (think Archer Daniels Midland) and likely others along
the way, nobody would be thinking about making ethanol for general fuel
use. Yeah, you COULD use solar or other approaches (instead of fossil
fuel) to distillation, etc., but that would take a huge capital outlay,
and I doubt that makes economic sense either.
$0.01: IIRC The federal emissions cycles don't really require the
engine to get into the WOT condition; otherwise it's likely most
high-perf and/or large engines would have problems meeting the
requirements. And the CA biennial test only runs the car at 25 mph on
the dyno. So, Ed, your surmise that there might be a "loophole" re
emissions and high combustion pressures/temperatures is correct.
Benn
P.s., Ed, you must've driven those high-compression small blocks a lot
more conservatively than me to get 25 mpg...or else run 'em really lean.
> gas. I do recall in the 60's when you could buy 100+ octane gas some
of the
> small block powered cars, and we're talking cars weighing 3800-4000
lbs dry,
> had no trouble getting 20-25 mpg on the highway.
> I guess the nitrogen compound emission problem killed high compression
> ratios; but I wonder if modern emission control technology is able to
> overcome that. I suppose it can; since we have turbocharged engines
that
> operate at high compression pressures. Or is there some ignored
loophole in
> the emision regulations that allow for the relatively infrequent use
of high
> power output conditions in turbocharged passenger car engines? For
example
> do the treadmill smog tests now used in CA get the power output
anywhere
> near high enough to get a turbo really working? ....I wonder.
> Ed Weldon
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