On 11/9/2019 9:47 PM, rbowman wrote:
On 11/09/2019 05:19 PM, Frank wrote:
se of ethanol as fuel was a zero sum game as cost of farming, making it
and all the other crap resulted in zero energy savings.Â* The gas
companies said they could have made gas just as good without it but ADM
and the rest of big agribusiness greased the palms of all the
politicians in DC to say otherwise.

There definitely was a lot of grease spread around for ethanol but I
don't exactly trust the refiners either. The drawbacks of TEL were known
for decades but it took a lot to get it out of gasoline. MBTE has issues
too but it was a cheaper replacement than EBTE. They could male more
isooctane from isobutylene but I'm guessing either MBTE or EBTE is cheaper.

EBTE does use ethanol rather than methanol but I don't know if it uses
enough to keep the corn growers happy.

The requirement was oxygenate content which refiners could satisfy most
easily and cheaply with MBTE. Then the problem occurred with MBTE
containing gasoline leaking and MBTE ending up in the water supply
giving it an off taste even at maybe less than one part per billion.

The governments, that includes states like CA, ****ing around with what
the refineries should make giving us all kinds of localized mixes just
adds to the cost of gasoline. You don't want politicians dictating science.