SwiftFuel Alternative To Alternative Fuels

TheDawgLives writes "PBS has an article by Bob Cringely about the best route to end our dependence on oil and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Instead of replacing all our expensive cars with even more expensive hybrids or electric cars, his suggestion is to use a cheap drop-in replacement for gasoline called Swift Fuel. It is derived from Ethanol, but doesn't require any modification to older cars to prevent corrosion. It can be mixed with gasoline in any amount and can even be distributed using the same network as gasoline, including being pumped in the same pipes and shipped in the same trucks. It is truly a drop-in replacement for gas, and it is real. It is being tested by the FAA for certification in propeller aircraft. It also happens to be about $2 a gallon cheaper than gasoline."

Comments

It's not a religion

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not a religion. Religions are based on faith. This is based on hysteria.

Re:Food prices

[Facetious]

My sense from the Cringely article is that the "six times" number refers to net energy. Then again, I read the article Friday and my memory is subject to exponential decay.

Re:Food prices

[FiloEleven]

I know if I was a farmer and had a chance to make more money growing a weed I would be all over it. Yeah, I tried that. You go to jail.

Re:No, No, No, No, No...

[plover]

I think the GP was saying there are three choices of non-depletable energy sources (except for nuclear energy), or perhaps he meant non-polluting (not that hectares of farmland or the production of ethanol don't pollute, nor is spent uranium a pollutant.) And by thermal energy being limited to Iceland, he didn't mean you couldn't use a ground-source heat pump in Minnesota. And by no such thing as alternative energy, he didn't mean that oil and coal weren't the primary sources of energy in the industrial world today. And he's probably lumping in hydroelectric dams and wind generators with solar energy (the sun fuels the weather, after all) and tidal power with, ... uh, well ...

I give up. I can't rationalize his mistakes as fast as he can make them.

Re:Food prices

[A nonymous Coward]

Mt Everest is even colder and people climb that too.

But not to and from work.

Re:Correction

[CrazyJim1]

So wait, I don't get you. Do you mean gasoline is going to go up another 10 cents in the next five minutes so it will be $2.10 cheaper? Or do you mean that once this technology gets found out, they'll jack the price up because it is a substitute for gasoline?

Re:I just ate an aspirin pancake.

[Anonymous Coward]

You might as well argue that eating is also inefficient, and that we should all simply develop photosynthesis to fuel our bodies instead.

Re:Food prices

[mrchaotica]

Mt Everest is even colder and people climb that too. But not to and from work.

Oh yeah? What about sherpas, then? ; )

Re:I just ate an aspirin pancake.

[timotten]

we should all simply develop photosynthesis to fuel our bodies instead.

Okay, sounds good. I'll need a cost estimate on that for Monday's meeting.

Also, do you know any consultants who have done this before?

Thanks,
Management

Re:Actually you are both quite wrong.

[werewolf1031]

For by riding my bicycle, I am now one of the elitist jerks, the holier-than-thou and more self-righteous than the car or bus-bound commuters around me. There, fixed that for ya. :)

The Solution (drum roll, please)

[BucketOfLard]

Problem: We're running out of cheap oil.
Solution: Kill more dinosaurs.

That was easy.

Re:Food prices

[dmsuperman]

In my first class in college, we learned about logical fallacies. One such fallacy is the "if there's no perfect solution, do nothing" fallacy. I swear, if you had only posted this a few years ago so that I might be able to use it for an example I might have gotten a better grade in that class.

Re:Which is why you preserve dense energy resource

[autophile]

FYI: the point of this is not efficiency, but rather that an electric motor is quieter than a diesel engine so [Hummers] can sneak up on enemies more easily.

TV commercial for the U.S. Army:
Scene: Quiet battery-powered Hummer racing through the desert to patriotic music.
Narrator: In the U.S. Army, our equipment is second to none.
Scene: Soldier with Prussian mustache and Kaiser Wil-helmet peering into the desert.
Scene: Hummer moving slowly and tentatively.
Scene: Closeup of soldier's eyes narrowing.
Scene: (Wideshot) Hummer sneaks up behind soldier.
Hummer: (suddenly jumping into the air and on top of soldier) Rarrrr!
Soldier: Waaaugh!
Narrator: Ha, ha. The Kaiser doesn't stand a chance!
Scene: Hummer on top of soldier.
Soldier: Yah! I hef vet mine pantaloons!

I'm your boogie man, that's what I am...

[GameboyRMH]

Must...not...joke...about...spelling...

Re:On the road to trouble

[trongey]

...when you start burning your food as fuel, you're in trouble Uh-oh. I've been doing that for 48 years. Guess I'm screwed.