Fuel comparison charts

16 year-old Evie Sobczak from St. Petersburg, Florida has engineered a new method of turning algae into biofuel. She determined a novel and more efficient way to grow the organisms, extract oil, and use the product as biodiesel. Her method uses no chemicals, and creates 20 percent more oil than current technologies. Her efforts won her first place at Intel?s International Science and Engineering Fair.

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Cool! Another Marie Curie!!

What a fantastic kid, I hope she doesn't burn out at a young age and goes on to develop more brilliant solutions to problems facing the World. ^_^

TDD

No it's not - iz made from Lieberuls. They just look like Peoples.

-- pyotr filipivich "With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."

There is no fuel shortage. Prices are roughly the same as they were in

1980, allowing for general inflation. Washington has almost nothing to do with fuel costs.

We have plenty of grains and starch to eat. Those are not issues.

All in all, Chris, that's a lot of mush inside your head, for one person. Where do you get all that stuff?

Washington holds back drilling - supply and demand. Washington taxes layer upon layer onto the fuel as a tax source.

The additives MTBE (trash junk that pollutes ground water) and now grain alcohol that robs the national store, world food bank, and home base food for all. Feed prices are up and fuel is also.

Mart> >

No, Washington isn't holding back drilling. They've let out hundreds of drilling leases that the oil companies aren't using. Prices have come down, not up. There is more supply than demand.

No, there is one federal tax on gasoline: 18.4 cents/gallon, where it's been since 1993. With inflation, its value keeps going down.

Corn ethanol has had some influence on grain prices. Otherwise, every one of your assertions here is a myth, Martin.

Ed Huntress

Are any more clues than religious or Mormon necessary?

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a cozy little classification in the DSM." - David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)

During an expose years ago on "60 Minutes", the question "which is the more toxic, MTBE or the gasoline itself?" was posed. The definitive reply stated conclusively that it was actually the latter, rendering the entire alarmist groundwater contamination issue by MTBE effectively moot.

I don't know much about the Mormons. From what little I've seen, they tend to be pretty well educated, in general. I'm sure there are exceptions.

It looks more like paleo-conservative cynicism to me. Things have to be going wrong, and it has to be somebody else's fault -- especially if there are any non-conservatives in power. We're on the road to perdition and no amount of evidence to the contrary will be considered.

It turns their minds into oatmeal and they're incapable of examining evidence in an objective way.

I wondered about that. I mean, how much more toxic can it be than gasoline?

I remember the discussion about the show you mention, but I never saw it. Interesting.

Ed Huntress

MTBE mixes with water. Gasoline doesn't. It also does not bind as well to soil as gasoline molecules. That means it travels quickly with rain water into aquifers. The EPA for years said it was safe until it started showing up in water supplies wherever it was used.

So what's the bottom line on MTBE as it's understood today?

Like many things that our economy rides on - necessary evil...

Don't think it is the toxicity but rather the persistence. In otherwords, it doesn't break down as quickly so it can be less nasty but for a longer period of time.

From the EPA website. Because MTBE dissolves easily in water and does not "cling" to soil very well, it migrates faster and farther in the ground than other gasoline components, thus making it more likely to contaminate public water systems and private drinking water wells. MTBE does not degrade (breakdown) easily and is difficult and costly to remove from ground water. How long will MTBE remain in water? MTBE is generally more resistant to natural biodegradation than other gasoline components. Some monitoring wells have shown little overall reduction in MTBE concentration over several years which suggests that MTBE is relatively persistent in ground water. In contrast, studies of surface water (lakes and reservoirs have shown that MTBE volatilizes (evaporates) relatively quickly.

Aha. Very interesting. Thanks, Kurt.

Unlike the petroleum distillates it is in solution with, MTBE is easily removed by, to name but one, common activated charcoal filtration systems. The scare tactic was nothing more than a smoke screen generated by the petroleum refiners and distributors in a cynical attempt to misdirect the populace (by blaming a government mandated additive) and conceal the actual problem, leaking fuel storage tanks.

As far as I know it was banned in a many states. That is when the EPA and oil cos gave up promoting it and switched to ethanol.

So we should believe someone who has no name, nym or valid email address?

Right. Oh f*ck yes.

Gunner