Well just when I think ethanol looks great some wiseguy has to make a good argument against it. What do you think?
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"Painful elaboration of the obvious."
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19 comments:
i think the problem is all of those dang rappers. we need to get them to rap about driving accuras and volvos instead of escalades and suburbans.
another solution could be the application of wormholes.
connor
Well, if we are going to use ethanol, we must find other alternatives in case there is not enough corn to go around for everything else we use it for.
Jessica 1st Period
I've never been a big fan of ethanol anyway, mostly because it is more costly to make and it has a lower enthalpy of combustion (34% lower) than gasoline. And while we're making wormholes an acceptable alternative, let's use antimatter to power cars! Talk about horsepower! Seriously though, I'm in favor of more research on hydrogen powered cars. When used in a fuel cell, pretty much everyone wins: environmentalists, drivers, and America in general, since it would nearly replace America's dependence on foreign oil. For equal costs of gasoline and hydrogen, you can drive about 2-3 times further on the hydrogen than on the gasoline. And that's even higher when used in fuel cells rather than simply burned. Even water could be used as a source of hydrogen through electrolysis; and since the by-product of fuel cells is water and energy, its practically a never-ending cycle of power. Hydrogen cars are also lighter, since hydrogen gets 38 kWh/kg while gasoline only gets 14 kWh/kg, meaning it won't take as much energy to accelerate anyway.
And I'm quite sure they can, with a little more research, make it a very safe alternative. Just look at what Congress, in 1875, said about gasoline:
"The dangers are obvious. Stores of gasoline in the hands of people interested primarily in profit would constitute a fire and explosive hazard of the first hank. Horseless carriages propelled by gasoline might attain speeds of 14, or even 20 miles per hour. The menace to our people of this type hurdling through our streets and along our roads and poisoning the
atmosphere would call for prompt legislative action even if the military and economic implications were not so overwhelming…the cost of producing [gasoline] is far beyond the financial capacity of private industry…"
After you get done laughing at the "menacing 20 mph" statement, I'd say it sounds an awful lot like what people say about hydrogen...and yet gasoline is considered perfectly safe nowadays.
And sorry about the long post...
Michael K. 2
Good grief Michael! I did not expect an education on hydrogen. Nice post. Move to the head of the class.
McKay
thats too much to read
Cigarette prices are up, and gas prices are down. life is good. this has almost nothing to do with the topic.....im pretty sure michael cover the whole thing. therefore anything i say about hydrogen will make me look like an idiot.
Justin Havins 5th
Havins, I concur. Trying to make a comment after the brilliant mind of Michael has decided to post just engenders the rest of the population of the school to look just plain dumb. Kudos, Michael, kudos.
Yea..what michael said.
Katie H 2nd
All i know is that as of right now im just pretty pumped that gas prices are below two dollars and what michael said!!
Franki G (5th)
Even though this is totally late and it depresses me that I cant even remember to post on a website for a grade when all I do is talk to people on the internet I thought I would go a head a post...at 11:30 at night. Gas prices have never really done anything because when I need gas I just go searching in my mom’s purse to find her plastic money and go get gas. Though I did sort of feel bad if I just drove around aimlessly while gas prices were high even though my car (Rav 4 Toyota) is not a gas guzzler. Also I would just feel weird driving around with corn in my car...it just doesn’t sound like it would work.
i forgot to put my name on that.
Hannah 1st
I don't think we would have to completely depend on biofuels for energy, but the fact that they are a renewable resource makes them more viable- even with the drawbacks. Using a renewable resource to supliment a non-renewable resource sounds like a good idea to me.
Marcus B. 5th
i have to agree with michael and the writer of the article it is not worth the added cost to make it and produce something that has less combustion power than gasoline and the fact that we are still going to have to use gasoline to procduce ethanol when clearly the production cost is higher and the power made from it it less.
sam d. 5th
i think that ethanol is not the answer to our fuel crisis because michael said it isn't. Besides we dont want to starve the people in mexico who need their tortillas. I'm not too worried because i have faith some genius somewhere will come up with a proper solution.
Ethan H. 5th
I personally am not for using ethanol to power our cars. I definitely am not for gasoline either don't get me wrong, Im for saving the planet and not being dependent on the Saudi's. I do think it's a little ironic that the smartest solution we've come up with is water. I mean if we're gonna be pro-environment here, aren't we try to save water also?
humm.... interesting
MelanieK02
I believe that ethanol is not our only solution to the "gasoline crisis." Agreeing with Robert Samuelson, I do feel it can help but if used to a certain degree it will just cause more grief. Though we must decrease our dependence on foreign oil, gasoline is staying for a good while. The increased manufacture of ethanol friendly vehicles and the altering of American preferences are two impacting factors of which may take time to widely develop. Along with that, most Americans are not willing to sacrifice food prices for gasoline prices.
Naomi G. (5th)Period
Gas prices are good at the moment. Ethanol is a good idea for consideration, but I think there is a better alternative out there somewhere.
Whitney A. 5th
Ok while it is true that corn-ethanol wont offset oil by much in the near future, it will cause a shift in technology. In order for us to make ethanol econimically viable technology must advance, and it will. Because ethanol is a much more available resource than oil. Oil is the result of millions of years of constant pressure and heat. Corn is the product of a year of harvesting and growing. Corn will outlast oil by a long-shot, so lets get started on advancing the technology so we can destroy this addiction to foreign oil. But in the future will we need a supply of foreign corn? Maybe.
Tyler C. (1) said this one above
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