Time to reconsider criticism of ethanol

In the past, the ethanol industry has been blamed for high food prices and environmental damage.

Last month, the EPA along with several major universities corrected those misconceptions, stating that ethanol is not the root cause for higher grocery prices. In fact, corn prices have recently fallen sharply despite increased ethanol production.

While we know ethanol is not the only answer to long-term energy independence, it is helping lower gasoline prices today. Consumers need to know the truth that oil importers refuse to tell: ethanol is a great deal for our country. Ethanol, in addition to domestically produced oil, is reducing the $1 billion-plus that leave our country every day to pay for a consumable product.

Both ethanol and gasoline are consumable products; however, with ethanol we retain the dollars to do it again.

Merrill Lynch estimates that removing biofuels from the market would result in gasoline prices 15 percent higher than they are today. Based on that analysis, with oil at $110 a barrel and U.S. demand estimated at 9 million barrels a day, ethanol is saving taxpayers $54 billion annually.

Oil importers would have you believe ethanol producers are getting the 51-cent-a-gallon ethanol tax subsidy. In reality, the refiners and gasoline retailers are putting it in their pockets when they purchase ethanol cheaper than the wholesale price of gas and then charge the consumer more for the ethanol-blended fuel.

Many people do not realize that when they are filling their car with unleaded, they are often getting a fuel containing 10 percent ethanol (E-10). If station owners were passing the savings from blending ethanol on to their customers, E-10 should be 5 cents cheaper than unleaded. That’s not happening.

At TJ Convenience, a mom-and-pop store in Colwich, ICM is kick-starting a program that demonstrates how important ethanol is — to consumers, to agriculture, to the environment and to our nation’s security.

At the station, we use special blender pumps to mix fuel on demand to create blends ranging from 10 to 85 percent ethanol. We’ve priced E-10 5 cents below unleaded, and higher percentages of ethanol-enriched fuel are discounted to reflect the subsidy as well as the percentage of ethanol.

Next time you fill up, take note of the octane ratings and prices. Unleaded with no ethanol has an octane rating of 87; E-10 has an octane rating of 89. Unleaded containing 10 percent ethanol is the same thing as 89-octane “midgrade.” I encourage you to ask your local station why they charge more for mid-grade when they’re getting it for less.

As recently as 2006, taxpayers paid farmers $1.8 billion to supplement their income from grain that was priced below the cost of production. Part of that money was also used to pay farmers not to farm 35 million acres of federal Conservation Reserve Program land — 20 million of which could be used for grain without damaging the environment. If the government would release some of this land, we could see lower grain prices and even lower fuel prices while, at the same time, increasing our country’s revenue from agriculture.

Many incorrectly believe that using corn to make fuel means taking food from people’s mouths. Ethanol production merely removes the starch from the corn. Protein and oil are processed into distillers grains, a nutritious livestock feed marketed to feedlots at a price that reduces their feeding cost. Additionally, ICM is perfecting a process that creates additional food-grade products, allowing the most nutritious parts of the corn to remain in the human food supply chain.

It is important for consumers to know that ethanol is environmentally friendly too. The United States Geological Survey says it takes 1,851 gallons of water to extract, transport and refine one barrel of oil or 28 gallons of gasoline, compared with three gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol from non-irrigated corn.

A commonly used lifecycle analysis model says that roughly 17.5 pounds of carbon dioxide-equivalent in greenhouse gases are emitted during the lifecycle production and use of one gallon of gasoline on an ethanol-equivalent basis. Most experts are in agreement that the production and use of corn-based ethanol reduces the lifecycle emissions by 20 to 40 percent per gallon of ethanol.

ICM is proud to be part of the answer, and even prouder to be doing our work in the heart of our nation’s agricultural belt — hand in hand with the great leaders and farmers of Kansas.

Dave Vander Griend is chief executive of Colwich-based ICM.

Hold on tight! The world’s first unicycle
MOTORBIKE

A young inventor has created a motorbike with a twist ? it uses two wheels but they are positioned right next to each other, giving it the illusion of being a powered unicycle. And even better, it might help save the planet.

Ben Gulak has spent several years building the electric Uno that uses gyroscopic technology – like the infamous Segway commuter device – to stay upright.

The bizarre-looking contraption has only one switch – on or off – and is controlled entirely by body movement.

The rider leans forwards to accelerate to speeds of 25mph and back to slow down. It has two wheels side-by-side and has been turning heads wherever it has been ridden.

Electric Unicycle and Inventor Ben Gulag

Ben Gulak designed the Uno himself with the help of a simple 3D program

The green machine is so small and light it can be taken indoors and carried into lifts – and is recharged by being plugged into the mains.

The wheels are completely independent, allowing the bike to turn on a sixpence and the technology takes the balance and guesswork out of riding a unicycle.

Its 18-year-old creator is now looking for investors to get the Uno into production and onto the streets.

Ben, from Ontario, Canada, said: “I was inspired to make the bike after visiting China a few years ago and seeing all the smog.

“They all drive little bikes that are really polluting and I wanted to make something to combat that.

“I started with the concept because if something doesn’t look cool people just won’t be interested.

Electric Unicycle in operation

Below is an excerpt from the article:

We haven’t been too excited about Ford’s Ecoboost tech, simply because it’s not really new tech. However, Ford’s next evolution of Ecoboost, code-named Bobcat, might be worth getting worked up about.

According to sources at PickupTrucks.com, the Bobcat is essentially a turbocharged engine running at a high compression ratio. Typically, this combination results in disaster, but Ford’s system has a trick up its sleeve in the form of ethanol injection.

The Bobcat builds on Ford’s Ecoboost engines by including a direct injected ethanol nozzle that adds small amounts of ethanol to the standard port injected air/fuel mixture. The ethanol cools the combustion chamber to prevent premature detonation, allowing the turbocharged engine to run extreme compression ratios.

The system promises 5 to 10 percent greater fuel economy than EcoBoost engines, which already promise a 20 percent increase over Ford’s traditional engines. Turbodiesel enthusiasts already know that high compression plus a turbo equals gobs of torque, which is why the Bobcat is speculated to be a potential replacement for the large diesel power plants that power Ford’s heavy- and super-duty trucks. A 5.0-liter turbo V-8 with ethanol boost could be rated at 500 horsepower and 700 foot-pounds of torque.

With the system’s lower entry cost combined with gasoline’s consistently lower cost per gallon, this system could be a viable alternative to diesel engines in the big trucks of the future.

Ford’s Bobcat engine includes standard port injected gasoline supplemented by ethanol direct injection.

(Credit: PickupTrucks.com )

Honda VFR conversion to electric power

evfr-honda-conversion

…The first question out of everyone’s mouth was “How far does it go”… to which I replied “15-20 miles on crappy used UPS batteries I got for free”. I initially wanted to go with larger lead [acid batteries], but since these were free, I wanted to develop/test the mechanical first, and then upgrade to lithium in the fall. Its all working and now I can shop for alternatives to lead. Most people scoffed a little, I didn’t care, Its quite a feat in a motorcycle, especially keeping it stock looking. I know what the end result will be…. LiFePo and AC will eventually find their way into that bike. It will perform well, and range will be 30-40 miles….

…ABG: Tell us about the process of developing the conversion.

Gintz: I saw the Tesla last year, and decided I wanted to look into building an EV myself. I have an electrical engineering background, and LOVE gadgets, so it came naturally. I looked into cars, but for 10 grand, and lots of work, it might be over my budget. I’m a single guy living alone, so I don’t have 10 grand sitting around, just to get 30-50 miles for commuting. I drive a Dodge Durango, and gas is starting to hurt. I needed a cheap commuter solution. I looked at a popular site called EVAlbum. They had some other vehicles, and the more I looked into motorcycles, the more I was sold on the idea. I started looking for bikes, and found someone on Craigslist that had a roller with bad engine and donated it to me. Then I ran into some guys at a new startup company called Synkromotive, in Portland, OR. They wanted to help the conversion, and in exchange for a controller, I would do testing/assmembly and R&D. Its been a great relationship with Synkromotive. A few weeks later, while looking for parts for the free bike, I found one in Florida that had a bad engine, but was in pristine shape. I bought it, shipped it here, and parted out the engine, electrical and exhaust. I almost broke even. Very shortly after this, I found a guy up near Seattle that had tons of batteries he wasn’t using for his motorcycle, and another rolling chassis, it was well worth $60 in gas to go get it. So I had a good roller and batteries and a controller. Found a motor on a surplus website. Assembly began in February. Another VFR guy wanted to help, and had fabrication background. We welded up a battery tray and made a motor mount. A month ago, we threw everything together and took it out for its first few runs. It was a great feeling. After 8 months of getting parts, designing and building… it all paid off….

…Quick statistics:
1986 Honda VFR700F
Series wound Advanced DC motor
156V 600A Synkromotive controller
12 12V 18Ah batteries running in 2-72V strings. Capable of 144V. Switching to Lifepo soon
4:1 gear ratio, will be moving to ~5:1
Range: 15-20 on used batteries
Top speed: 65mph, one gear, no clutch
Charging system is custom…

Dan and Peter took this project on, and in only two nights it had new batteries, a fresh coat of paint, some chrome wheels, and a spiffy detail job!  The E-Meter is even trying to work now, so we need to calibrate it and get it going as well.

All that’s left is putting the racks on and it will be alive and running for the open house on Wednesday!

The CVT isn’t working great…  Anyone familiar with Polaris Constant Velocity Transmissions?  It slips on anything other than a flat surface.  We were thinking about upgrading the system from 48V to 60V, but even 48V outpowers the CVT at the moment.  Get that tuned right and then we’ll look at putting on some more power.

Come to the open house!  It’s Wednesday at 6pm at the AFV lab!

Welcome to Powered by Propane

Are you looking for a good propane conversion kit?  At poweredbypropane.net we provide propane power kits for 3,4,5,6, and 8 cylinder vehicles. From small engine propane conversion kits to auto propane conversions of larger vehicles we have the equipment and the design techniques to make your automobile run on propane.

Whether you are doing fleet automobile propane conversions or simply want propane conversion kits for your own vehicles, we have the auto propane conversion kits to convert your gas vehicle into a propane/gas hybrid. Do you own propane powered vehicles? Are you tired of being held hostage to the gas industry? Turn to automotive propane conversion and enjoy the ability to switch from a gas vehicle to a gas to propane conversion vehicle. For expertise turn to poweredbypropane.net for all you’re propane conversion needs!

What I found interesting about this setup is that it is dual fuel, as the gasoline system is left intact, and the system can be manually converted back to gasoline.  One could use the propane from a home tank for the majority of travel, then convert to gasoline when going on a trip.  Here is an excerpt

A miniature console is the only element of the system installed inside the drivers cabin. This small unit allows the driver to observe the level of propane in the tank(depends on what kind of tank setup you have), indicates the stages of employment of the ECU, and allows for a manual change from propane to gasoline.

The prices seem reasonable to me, too

Kit Contents: A Poweredbypropane conversion kit may not include all necessary mounting brackets for your particular vehicle as these kits are universal. The installer may need to fabricate brackets to mount LPG rails, Reducers or other components. All parts must be secured properly to ensure there are no leaks

3-4 Cylinder Conversion Kit

$1 195.00

5-6 Cylinder Conversion Kit

$1 375.00

8 Cylinder Conversion Kit

$1 650.00

I’m not familiar with the price of propane vs. the price of gasoline and therefore what the payout time would be for such a conversion.  I don’t know what the gas tax implications would be for this for using fuel that doesn’t have the gas tax included at purchase, either.

It’s feasible—but challenging on many fronts

How much gasoline would the nation save in the year 2035 if lightweight hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles dominated the marketplace? More than 68 billion gallons, or about half the fuel currently used by today’s vehicles.

Detailed analyses in a new MIT report demonstrate that such changes are feasible. Indeed, the report concludes that over the next 25 years the fuel consumption of new vehicles could be reduced by 30-50 percent and total U.S. fuel use for vehicles could be cut to 2000 levels, with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cut by almost as much….

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