[Ryephile]

Allch Chcar: Do you have an actual reason behind your distaste for Diesel [or Bio-Diesel] as an efficient fuel? In terms of fuel volumetric efficiency, Diesel is better than Gasoline is better than Ethanol.

So far I can only gather that your preference towards Ethanol is based solely on the USA's ability to produce a surplus of feed corn. I'm sure you already know about Ethanol's stoichiometric ratio and energy content. As a replacement for Gasoline, it will always have greater fuel consumption and greater power output in an Ethanol-optimized engine.

Ethanol may be great for fuel-economy-be-damned sports cars, but that isn't the direction the industry is heading. Ethanol may be a decent fuel source for the mid-term while the push to get off foreign oil is strong and we refuse to tap our own oil reserves, but in the long term when we need efficient fuels and engines I can't foresee Ethanol being a key player.

What we need in the short and mid-term is a fuel that's exactly the same as Diesel but labelled something else so people will get over their 1970's Oldsmobile misconceptions of it.

In the long term, IC engines will need far greater efficiency than the couple percent they have now to be viable.