Rich Willbanks wrote in a message to Brian Lane:
BL> SAMS) they said that you could produce up to 500 gallons a 
BL> year, but it had to be denatured by adding benzene to it. The 
BL> book was written in the late '70s or early 80;s I believe, so 
BL> the information is probably out of date.
 RW> BENZENE!  I do believe that your book is out of date. I think 
 RW> benzene has been on the EPAs list of carcinogens for a long 
 RW> time.  Heck back in my high school chem lab we had to put on 
 RW> gloves and goggles when ever we used the stuff.
Really?  I used to go out and buy that stuff to use as paint thinner...
BL>   I like the idea of alcohol as fuel because we are then not
 RW> I've been trying to research the use of alcohol and vegetable 
 RW> oil as fuels.  I'm not having much luck, being out in the 
 RW> middle of no where and with no internet connection.  From what 
 RW> I have found you can use corn for several things; oil, alcohol 
 RW> and feed.  One draw back is neither has the btu per gallon of the
 RW> corresponding petroleum products
That's typical.  Like a local thing I went to a while back,  lots of *steam* 
powered stuff there.  It sure was clunky,  but it sure did work...
BL>   (boy, now I'm gonna get flamed by the electric car
 RW> IMNSHO, the only way electric cars are going to reduce 
 RW> pollution is by using nuclear plants to produce the 
 RW> electricity.  FYI, more people die each year from mining coal 
 RW> then have ever died from nuclear power. This includes TMI and 
 RW> Chernoble .
TMI wasn't all that big of a deal,  and as for Chernobyl the bill hasn't been 
paid on that one yet.  Not by a long shot.  But anyhow I agree with your 
point there,  electric cars are not going to be anywhere near as efficient as 
some of the other choices out there,  even if they're less efficient than 
what we've got now.
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