I like it, maybe university of alabama scientists could get some DOE money to actually set up a still and fertilizer using agricultural waste to reduce the pollution impact of E85. If buying it helped support 'bama instead Opec or adm, all the better.
the Prius run in closed loop mode within a minute or after startup. You can throw 70% ethanol in the tank and it still runs at lambda 1. The ECU just adds fuel to reach lambda 1. If you exceed about 30% enrichment, it throws a CEL, but otherwise nothing happens. I aded a piggy back ECU that extends injector pules by 30% and adds some cold start enrichment. Two years any many miles later no issues. The cars pulls harder on the Autobahn past 80 mph on E85. It has more power. The increase can be atttributed to chrge cooling as big part of the mix is blown back into the plenum. Ethanol evaporates and cools the charge increasing its density. A research project at EMPA, a swiss government institution, examined catalytic converter effects of e85 and found a little bit of ash in the first part of the cat. Cat efficiency was slightly reduced, but not sufficiently to be a problem over the lifetime of the car. for those who can read German: http://www.empa.ch/plugin/template/empa/*/143270/---/l=1 So don't worry with E10. Nothing will happen, blow up or otherwise in a Prius II or Prius III using ethanol in it. iPad ?
Prior to the current century, Methanol was blended with gasoline in California and sold as Gasohol. But the ethanol lobby worked hard to push ethanol for their economic gain. Methanol can be easily made from methane retrieved from landfills, natural gas (methane) and even coal. Ford developed a lot of gasohol methanol fuel vehicles in the last century, and many were certified in California. Methanol is a much better option than ethanol made from foodstuff.
My favorite nuggets re ethanol; Flexible-fuel vehicles in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .
