Started burning E85

[rsewill]

Maybe you'll soon burn butanol. And instead of corn they should be using switchgrass - it WAS a big wet kiss to corn farmers. I live in MN and drive by a handful of ethanol plants. Very busy places and a waste of good corn. Even Rep. Colin Petersen (D-MN), when he was head of the House Ag Committee, wouldn't back more plants in his own corn growing district.

 

[rambler]

According to what diamondpilot has seen, if e10 gas is $3.00/gallon, e85 would have to be $2.10/gallon. Without the government subsidy, will this price spread exist to make it logical? I grew up in central Illinois and understand the farmers could greatly benefit from ethanol. Hopefully these increased prices will also allow the government to kill many of these subsidized farm programs.

Timber, I respect your desire to make your own fuel and hopefully it will be both a fun and economical venture. If not economical at least it will make you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside(not by consuming).

Most folks figure a price difference of $.50-.60 makes the ethanol a better buy for their vehicles, but not every E85 engine is the same. The price relationship changes every week, the closest ethanol pump is a 3/4 mile from my driveway, they are all around southern MN. There are weeks E85 is not a bargin, there are weeks it is. Since gas prices are going up into summer, likely E85 will be a good bargin more often than not. Ethanol has matured more or less, no new plants going up, we are where we are with that for the time being.

With the ethanol subsidy gone, gas prices rose a bit, and the ratio will likely remain either side of 50 cent price difference.

Grain prices are on such a roller coaster - South America is having a dismal crop, China & India have lots of money & the USA dollar is so weak our grains look like a bargin to them - ethanol isn't even a player any more in grain prices.

The govt has one built-in grain subsidy to entice farmers to sign up & remain uder their (meaning all taxpayers'?) control. The other subsidies have not kicked in in several years now, so yes, they have eliminated a lot of the old farm subsidies. There is much talk that even the one subsidy to grain farmers will be eliminated in the next farm bill. Currently only about 11% of the 'farm bill' goes to farmers; the rest goes for admistration, food safety, and Food Stamps type programs. So, yes, for sure, farm subsidies have gone down.

Sorry for the thread drift.

--->Paul

 

[DarkBlack]

No need for worry or anyone to scratch their head in deep thought.
Since the cave man, all succsessful inovations rose on supply and demand.
NEVER on forced trade.
Ethanol will soon be in history books as a tiny blip of history, of government forced taxation.

 

[hawkeye08]

Timber, I have read that there are big issues with switching between fuels (E85, E10, straight gas) on the recent GM trucks. Something about needing to be driven ~7 miles after getting fuel for the computer to figure out what it is and use the right parameters or things get messed up... very poor mileage and poor performance, etc. I read about it on the GM truck forum.

 

[timswi]

Timber, I have read that there are big issues with switching between fuels (E85, E10, straight gas) on the recent GM trucks. Something about needing to be driven ~7 miles after getting fuel for the computer to figure out what it is and use the right parameters or things get messed up... very poor mileage and poor performance, etc. I read about it on the GM truck forum.

E85 is going to kill the mileage whether the computer know what's there or not..I don't think it's really a GM thing...E85 isn't gas, mostly.

 

[Diamondpilot]

E85 is going to kill the mileage whether the computer know what's there or not..I don't think it's really a GM thing...E85 isn't gas, mostly.

Yea, it killed the MPG in my 07 F-150 as I noted before. It went from 15.5 mpg to 11 mpg. In my Titan it was not as bad but the Titan is not great to start with at 14.3 mpg to about 12 mpg.

In all fairness though I only ran one tank in the Titan. In the F-150 I ran it for a solid 3 month while my Co-Pilot at the time did the same with his Yukon XL and we both saw the same 30% to 35% loss in mpg across the board over about 4000 miles of driving each.

What I think the previous poster was saying is don't switch back and forth. Some vehicles have a slower learning curve for its fuel type so you may have extremely poor fuel economy when switching back and forth.

Chris

 

[timswi]

Yea, it killed the MPG in my 07 F-150 as I noted before. It went from 15.5 mpg to 11 mpg. In my Titan it was not as bad but the Titan is not great to start with at 14.3 mpg to about 12 mpg.

In all fairness though I only ran one tank in the Titan. In the F-150 I ran it for a solid 3 month while my Co-Pilot at the time did the same with his Yukon XL and we both saw the same 30% to 35% loss in mpg across the board over about 4000 miles of driving each.

What I think the previous poster was saying is don't switch back and forth. Some vehicles have a slower learning curve for its fuel type so you may have extremely poor fuel economy when switching back and forth.

Chris

We don't have E85 widely available around here (yet)...People I work with in the middle of the country complain about it a lot. Seems it's much more common in certain geographical areas.

I'll keep my 16mpg on 10-15% ethanol as long as I can...Wonder what I'd get on 100% gas.

 

[Diamondpilot]

We don't have E85 widely available around here (yet)...People I work with in the middle of the country complain about it a lot. Seems it's much more common in certain geographical areas.

I'll keep my 16mpg on 10-15% ethanol as long as I can...Wonder what I'd get on 100% gas.

I wish I never seen E85 or for that matter 10% ethanol. Its nothing but trouble in the marine environment and small engines.

Consider yourself lucky for now you don't have access to it.

Chris

 

[timswi]

I wish I never seen E85 or for that matter 10% ethanol. Its nothing but trouble in the marine environment and small engines.

Consider yourself lucky for now you don't have access to it.

Chris

I've heard the horror stories of small engines, marine engines and non-compatible vehicle motors..I plan to stay away as long as possible.

I still have this stupid E85 badge on my truck..False advertising in my case.

 

[crazyal]

I would like to know if you could make Ethanol at a cheap enough price o make it worth it. I looked into Biodiesel but the two basic options were to just filter it and have it in it's own heated tank and switch over to it once it's up to temp or to refine it and deal with all the waste byproducts and chemicals. Clearly Corn is not an option (unless you can find a cheap source) since it's no where near as good as sugar cane.