Alternative Fuel Summary

Whatever you can find on the website is what I can tell you. I've only been to the website a couple of times and it acted as a strong sedative.

Anyway, if you're interested, it's redacted

Nice website... Just gave it a decent rundown, sounds like a very interesting workplace.. Question though, I was under the assumption you didn't really have that much education other than high school, so how does one go about landing a job like that?...

I work in the reliability testing department. I also got very lucky getting this job. I pretty much just do reliability testing on the products that are made here to improve yields and quality. I get to use numerous tools such as the scanning electron microscope, data acquisition systems, instron, furnaces, etc. on a daily basis.

I'm the "problem solver."

That's pretty awesome man, I wish I could be so lucky .

Probably pays pretty well I would assume.


Oh well, Doing it the old fashioned way, education + going from there. But back to the alterntative fuel, from what I can tell, the E85 gas isn't going to take off until it's mass produced, because at this point in time it's more expensive at states that aren't massively producing crops... so for now running vegetable oil in your diesels is the way to go..

Here's another newer article on Methanol as a relialable alternative fuel, looks promising for the most part.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1203120546.htm

After grabbing headlines for years as the ultimate solution to world energy problems, the "hydrogen economy" has an emerging but lesser-known competitor called the "methanol economy," according to an article scheduled for the Dec. 3 issue of Chemical & Engineering News.

China now blazes the trail toward a methanol economy, putting 1 to 2 billion gallons per year toward fuel, according to the article. Researchers worldwide are now exploring new, more efficient methods for making methanol. One of the downsides of producing methanol, however, is that carbon dioxide, the primary gas behind climate change, is a byproduct. To remove that liability, scientists are also developing processes that can convert the carbon dioxide into more methanol or other usable materials, the article states.

Clink the link for full details, it does sound promising indeed.

Brazil has cars that run off of 100% sugar cane ethanol. It's becoming more and more popular, because the energy return is much greater than that of soybeans or corn.

Yes I have heard a snippit about that before, it's very good to hear as we become a more conciencious more clean world.

Here's a decent artcile on it as well.


http://www.globalexchange.org/countr...azil/3776.html

IF PRESIDENT Bush needs an example of how ethanol can help to reduce dependence on oil imports, he need look no further than Brazil. What Saudi Arabia is to crude oil, Brazil is to ethanol — the environmentally friendly, renewable fuel of which it is the largest producer. Brazil makes the fuel by fermenting and distilling its sugar cane crop, the biggest in the world, and then using the liquid to fuel a rapidly increasing proportion of its transport fleet. Seven out of ten of all new cars sold in Brazil are now "flex-fuel" — owners can fill them with either ethanol or petrol. Computer sensors inside the engine then decide what will be the best mix of whatever is in the tank for optimum performance. Finding ethanol is not a problem either — nearly all petrol stations have pumps selling pure ethanol, while all regular petrol sold at the pumps is a mix called "gasohol", a blend that contains up to 25 per cent ethanol.

One downside is that ethanol engines require about 25 per cent more fuel per mile than petrol. But in Brazil this is offset by ethanol's lower cost. It typically sells for 50-66 per cent of the price of petrol.

Now Brazil's main challenge is meeting demand. The country aims to double ethanol production by 2013. Already demand is straining supplies between harvests, causing ethanol prices to rise to close to where petrol becomes more cost effective for flex-fuel drivers. But the industry says expanding sugar cane plantations and new ethanol plants will quickly solve the problem