Ian.
Sorry Ian, now that Gasohol has got an own forum I couldn’t leave out the critics against your two “Aussi influenced” posts on this thread earlier, especially since I got so good feedback from Rhodie (thanks)
When reading your first post I thought it was an Aussie joke but when Monsterman started to use your post as a reference, somebody praised your second post I started to think that maybe I have to respond to your posts.
First of all I only try to “demystify” Gasohol and present the facts. To much of the Gasohol discussion is about “feelings and I’ve heard” and despite that your humoristic posts do have some deep believes and feelings behind I must say that your posts belong to this group.
Your first sentence I don’t understand so I will not comment on it. Then you say that Gasohol is shit. Then you either drink shit or drive shit because Gasohol is alcohol and gasoline.,… Gasohol has been tried but not failed. That information is wrong. All over the world Gasohol or other Ethanol blends are used and the use is increasing heavily. Just as an example there are already more than 1000 stations for E85 in USA and it is assumed to double every year. In Thailand E85 is also expanding rapidly as is the E20 and Gasohol sales. I can quote Shell Thailand:
Shell plans to start selling E20 in the second quarter due to strong growth in market demand, and brisk sales of E10. Shell's premium E10 has been replacing as much as 65% of total premium petrol sales and the figure is expected to rise to 80% in the next three months
In Europe ethanol/gasoline blends have been sold a long time often without people knowing it. Ethanol has been replacing MTBE as octane booster at rapidly increasing rate the closer the date that MTBE will be forbidden comes. In northern Europe ethanol has been mixed into gasoline especially in the winter time when you must take the water out of your fuel system. In Sweden where E85 has been available for a long time they have introduced flexible fuel meters at the petrol stations. The customer can himself choose how much ethanol he want to mix with the gasoline, everything from 0% to 85%.. Just put the letters Gasohol and google and you will see that by far the most information you get is Pro Gasohol.
Scientific Research has Proven it is Environmentally Less Damaging and More Economical than Normal Fuel. From were you take your information? Maybe from Monsterman….There are many, many researches made about the Environmental effects of using ethanol as fuel instead of gasoline. All the researches show that the effects overall are positive. Some specific unwanted particles in the emission may rise under certain circumstances when using ethanol but it doesn’t change the overall picture. When you look at the economics of using ethanol, taking into account the total cost of producing ethanol you may get some mixed result. Most of them are the result of an ineffective price system. To much government involvement in agriculture prevents the true market mechanism to work. Another reason is that the some calculations use figures from “old” ethanol production. They forget that the production processes of ethanol make huge progress every day. Both the amount of water needed as well as the energy needed has diminished at a very fast track. Also there have been created many new means of how to use the other byproducts of the ethanol manufacturing in an economical way.. Just google and you will find the correct information.
And then we have that old story that ethanol is the cause of the food shortage and high prices of rood. Strange that ethanol is not blamed for the bad weather also…. My advice is the same google and read. You will find articles, writings and researches backing both opinions. But I think that when you look a little closer into you will find that those writings that don’t blame ethanol for food shortages are the most intellectual and best backed up by data. For clever answers by a clever man read:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/29035-ethanol-a-few-myths-debunked
You have to remember that ethanol can be manufactured from many other raw material actually all biomasses. In USA they just opened an cellulose-ethanol factory that uses what is left from the sugar canvases after the sugar is taken away.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/celulose-cellulosic-ethanol-plant-verenium.phpSo it is not corn and ethanol against food it is a much broader spectrum of alternatives. It just happens to be that corn and sugar cane are damned good raw materials for ethanol as we all know… (Vodka and Rhum ) and I’m sure you don’t have any bad feelings that you are causing the food shortage when you have a few drinks.
The plantations are not owned by politicians in Thailand but by rich people. People like Dhanin Chearavanont, CEO and owner of CP Group one of Thailand’s biggest company, dominating the Thai food business. He believes strongly in the ethanol business and have been investing a long time in it. Just happens that today’s ( a week ago) Bankok Post have an article about CP and the Ethanol business. Khun Dhanin is also a very clever man so it maybe good to read his thoughts here: <a href=""http://www.cpthailand.com/CorporateCommunications/pageNewsroom/tabid/107/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/91/Default.aspx