Ethanol may be a "premium" fuel but I can speak from thousands of miles of using regular gas and gasoline enhanced with ethanol, my car goes ten percent farther on regular gasoline.  Jerry Neff
----- Original Message -----
From: Ed Woolsey <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 13:37:12 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Re: biomass, corn stover, and the new wave of synthetic biology

CH3CH2OH ...this is ethanol.  There are trace amounts of aldehydes and a 
few aeromatics...but a very small amount.

Petro contains: (Wiki)   
The hydrocarbons in crude oil are mostly alkanes, cycloalkanes and various 
aromatic hydrocarbons while the other organic compounds contain nitrogen, 
oxygen and sulfur, and trace amounts of metals such as iron, nickel, copper 
and vanadium. The exact molecular composition varies widely from formation 
to formation but the proportion of chemical elements vary over fairly narrow 
limits as follows:[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum

We commonly assume that gasoline contains over 100 different chemical 
compounds.  These vary...while gasoline is reformulated by season...using 
lighter chemicals (zylene,tolulene,benzene) during winter months. (These are 
lighter and contain less btu's/gallon than heavier hence less mpg's)

So, run these two mixtures though your combustion engine and you get 
another major (very complex) reformulation.  It seems to make common 
sense to me that you'd have many fewer cancer causing critters in the simple 
ethanol formulation than in the mess coming out of gasoline.  Can we agree 
here?

Pimental has always hated CORN production.  His studies were as bias as any 
academic beholding to corporate or other $$$$ interests.  But just because he 
is bias it does not mean he has no good points.

Ethanol is a premium (from enviro stand point) liquid transport fuel.  It needs 
to be produced sustainably, unlike today.  We can do this if we get the 
incentive structure correct.  This is our faults, not ethanols.

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