Bioethanol fuels

[Capn Notarious]

• Can these be used in aircraft engines.
• Are there advantages /disadvantages.

I had a look in the search facility.

[barit1]

I don't have the answers, but some of the issues are:

Lubricity - care & feeding of fuel pumps
BTU's/lb. - range when weight limited
BTU's/gallon - range when tank volume limited
Cost/BTU - operating cost

There is also the very real environmental issue of BTU expenditure for production vs. BTU delivered to the tank. Farmers depending on the synfuels market don't like to discuss this, but ethanol/methanol production is pretty inefficient in waste heat.

[breagh01]

Flora veg oil fuel lol

Hi, prolly won't help at all but try looking at some of the websites dedicated to these type of fuels in cars. there are regularly forums and discussions and you may find the info you require regarding this. ciao and good luck

[Swedish Steve]

Ethanol as car fuel is quite common in Sweden. The fuel is called E85 and is 85% ethanol and 15% petrol. It goes in the normal fuel tank and can be mixed with ordinary petrol. The most common car is the Ford Focus, but Saab has just joined in. To modify an old car costs around £1000. Biggest problem is starting from cold. At M5 deg C, E85 will not ignite. You need a block warmer to heat the engine first. OK if you are at home, but not much good in a cold carpark! Also the fuel is less dense than petrol, so you get less miles/tank, but pricewise it is a good bet at present tax levels. In a warmer climate it would be a good idea.

[barit1]

I believe in Brazil there's a small "starter" tank of regular petrol to get the engine going, then switchover to ethanol.

And all of Rio smells like a distillery!

[breagh01]

Hey i just bought an LPG car as i was doing 140 round trip to work 6 on and 6 off. = 30k miles a year and around £7k per year in fuel (was driving 2.5 V6 Omega Elite which done 30 mpg tops) now I am around £2k per year and have no loss in either performance, etc. So whatever you do or find out re: biofuel I am all in favour of alternative fuels mostly due to the selfish reason of saving dosh.

[barit1]

breagh01, what is the refueling situation? Do you have your own rig plumbed to the gas mains, or are there service stations?

I think many people will find yours an attractive solution, given the right arrangements.

[Mariner9]

Originally Posted by barit1

breagh01, what is the refueling situation? Do you have your own rig plumbed to the gas mains, or are there service stations?
I think many people will find yours an attractive solution, given the right arrangements.

A common misconception. Mains gas is Methane, whereas LPG cars run on Propane. Plenty of LPG filling stations available these days. The only limitation is tank size, my Vectra only had a 40litre LPG tank, giving me a range of about 250 miles (though at a cost of only £16)

[breagh01]

Lpg gas stations are becoming increasingly more available in the UK. I wish I could plug into the mains as that would cost me 0.0023pence per litre, gas station prices currently cost around 40 pence per litre as opposed to petrol at 90 pence and diesel at 95 pence. failing all this i can always plug in a BBQ bottle haha.
Seriously though. What A/C are you speaking about here?
regards.

[barit1]

My bad. I had LNG (liquified natural gas) on the brain.

There are small domestic LNG compressors available in the colonies to refuel an LNG car overnight.

[whiskeyflyer]

Brazil has the Neiva Aeronautic Industry EMB 202 crop duster power by Ethanol.

[aeroBits]

Slightly off topic...

Is anyone aware of a combination of the Hybrid Fuel / Electricity cars (e.g. Prius) using LPG for the Fuel part of that?

A colleague of mine in the US had a Prius and was proud to point to 42mpg - I get an average 46 with my 2.4 litre diesel, so wasn't too impressed on the ecological benefits of the Prius, but if you could combine that with LPG, it might be a flyer...

[fabo]

aeroBits,

One thing to remember if you are comparing the effiency of your car (in terms of mpg) with your US based college is that a UK gallon is different to a US gallon:
1 UK gallon = 4.5461 litres
1 US gallon = 3.7854 litres

Don't ask me why or how the two volume units are different, they just are!
So the odds are that your US friend is actually getting about 50.4 miles per UK gallon out of his/her Prius (which is still less than impressive fuel economy for an "environmentally friendly" car).

Apologies for the off-topic nature of this post...

[barit1]

Prius (& other hybrids) claim better economy in stop & go city driving than on the highway. This is for two reasons:
> Parasitic drag is less at lower speed (forgive my aeronautical lingo - parasitic drag is the only kind of drag a car has!)
> Regenerative braking recharges the battery (for free) every time you use the brakes.
So if the comparision is made on the highway, a hybrid is less of an advantage - or maybe no advantage at all. OTOH, city buses, taxicabs and urban delivery vehicles might be excellent candidates for hybrids.