Reply To: The recent "discovery" of Dark Matter

[Frenetic]

Transmute wrote: Ethanol really is not that bad, all that needed to modify an engine for it is to change the fuel air ratio, and replace pieces exposed to the liquid ethanol with stainless steel or plastics. Despite having only 2/3 the energy per mass as gasoline, ethanol burns better then gasoline under compression and engines with very high compression ratios can be used thus increasing the amount of power per engine mass considerably.

Have you priced stainless steel lately? Have you ever had to fabricate anything out of it? All I am saying is that we should get ALL the facts before we leap into something this tricky in such a massive way.

Transmute wrote: Why diesel engines anyway?, why not foil bearing turbines? Turbines can be more efficient (at least in a hybrid platform) and it does not care what fuel it runs on, you could run on any liquid fuel, not to mention that they are smaller and easy to manufacture.

Turbines are only more efficient than diesels when they are kept under a steady load. We tried using them in locomotives for a while and there were numerous problems. A train running across country non-stop would use less fuel per ton-mile than a diesel-electric, but as soon as you had to use that engine in switch yard it turned into a ravening fuel-hog. There is also the problem with very high exhaust temperatures. One turbine driven locomotive set the pavement of an overpass on fire while sitting under the structure at idle. Remember Parnelli Jones? He drove a turbine powered race car in the Indy 500. Know why they outlawed turbines on the race track? The exhaust temps caused troubles with the track and damaged the other cars.

Turbines are very good for airplanes, ships and stationary power plants. They aren’t too terribly good for automobiles, trucks and trains.

Diesel engines are the best choice we have among a group of poor candidates for our transport energy needs. They are not perfect by any means, but they are one whole heck of a lot more reliable and cleaner than the other options we have on hand at the moment.

I would like to see how biofuel ethanol is a greater pollutant then gasoline, I