"katy" wrote...
Huh? Thom, I totally believe in switching to veggie based fuel, not
only ethanol but soy-derived diesel. The letter you posted just
confirmed my suspicions that it is not the product at fault, but the
politics and money behind the oil industry. The specious argument
that switching won't work because vehicles will lose mileage and
create smog is ridiculous. There is smog, and there is SMOG....

These arguments are hardly specious or ridiculous, they are factual.

Research had shown that the worst component of smog was Nitric Acid so, back in
1970, the gummymint dictated less efficient low compression engines to reduce
Nitric Oxide - the stuff that mixes with water in the air to form these acids -
acids that burn your eyes and rot your curtains and worse. Typical gas mileage
dropped by 30%. A mid-size sedan that had been getting 20mpg in 1969 only got
12 by the 72 model year. This was the primary cause of the gas shortages a few
years later when these "environmentally friendly" cars replaced earlier more
efficient cars. So, how can you get 12 mpg instead of 20 and make less smog?

Nitric Oxide does not come from gasoline, it come from air, which is some 70%
Nitrogen and 28% Oxygen IIRC. Normally the two don't mix. But they do if you
compress them inside an engine then set off an explosion in the chamber. And the
higher the compression pressure (ratio) the more mixes and becomes one of the
strongest acids known. That's why environmentalists were willing to trade poorer
gas mileage and more hydrocarbon emissions for less acid. Simple as that.

Ethanol requires even higher compression ratios than gasoline to burn
efficiently - to extract the most energy per gallon - and diesels depend on very
high compression ratios to run at all. Therefor, if one burns ethanol in a
relatively low compression engine like we have today, designed to minimize
emissions, they will definitely lose gas mileage. How much? Well, when 10%
"gasohol" was popular my cars got 10% poorer mileage, indicating that they were
not burning the alcohol at all, that it was just a filler. OTOH racing engines,
using ultra high ratios burn it fine. So we can switch to ethanol but only if we
redesign our motors to use it - and that means more acid smog. Ditto diesel, we
can use diesel engines, but that too means more acid smog. We cannot repeal the
laws of physics or chemistry.