1. Since the latent heat of ethanol is higher it can provide a benefit in certian cases. These would be cases where you are running a lot of boost, or a lot of compression. This is because as the ethanol makes the phase change from liquid to gas it will help to cool the air charge thus preventing pre-ignition or detonation. This provides a benefit similar to that of having a higher octane.
2. The stoichiometric ratio for ethanol does have a benefit if you were to work through the equations. Yes you will burn more fuel each stroke at the correct stoichiometric ratio than with gasoline, but ethanol will release more energy per unit air than gasoline can. From when I last did the calculations (I can't find the link, it may have been before I decided to actually get a/. account) you can get about 10% more power out of running ethanol at the expense of burning about 1.5x the fuel. IIRC the stoichiometric ratio for ethanol is somewhere around 9:1 but for regular gas (100LL, regular 87 octane, etc) it is around 14:1, methanol is even worse at around 7:1.
3. No a higher compression ration does not increase the amount of fuel you burn per stroke, all it really does is increase your carnot cycle efficiency. This is most to to the fact that it decreases the distance the flame front has to travel while also increasing the flame speed due to the increased temperature. Because of the increased temperature that you get from a higher compression ratio you either need a higher octane or a fuel with a higher latent heat. Granted alcohols burn cooler leading to a lower maximum theoretical carnot cycle efficiency, but it isn't that much lower if you want to work through the math, but you can really crank up the compression (or boost for those running turbos or superchargers) when using ethanol because of its higher octane and its higher latent heat.
4. Your top fuel dragsters and funny cars are not really running alcohol (their fuel has some in it), but instead a fuel called nitromethane. Typically they run it at a 1:1 fuel air ratio since nitromethane is similar to an explosive and brings with it its own oxidizer. Your are correct in that it does burn cooler, but because the stoichiometric ratio of nitromethane they are able to release more energy per power stroke than with any other fuel. In top fuel racing the fuel isn't 100% nitro methane but is about a 90% nitromethane 10% methanol, the reason for this is because nitromethane is similar to an explosive and when first used there were some very catastrophic incidents with vehicles using it, both the NHRA and IHRA, the 2 drag racing bodies in the US, ban the use of 100% nitromethane. In the alcohol classes (alcohol dragsters and funny cars) all of those vehicles run methanol. The reason for this is exactly what is described in my second point you can burn even more methanol than you can ethanol and in doing so are able to release even more energy.
5. Finally I never said that ethanol was efficient fuel wise, it is actually pretty bad compared to regular gasoline and even worse compared to diesel, but was a good fuel for producing power. I was only indicating that to get the most benefit out of running ethanol as a race fuel you need to do more than just run it in an existing engine at the proper fuel to air ratio. The additional things that should be done would be to increase the boost and or compression ratio, adjust the timing, if switching from a vehicle from something that was originally designed to run leaded gas (pre 1975 in most cases) ensure that you have hardened valve seats put in but this should be done even if not using ethanol as you would want these if running unleaded fuel as well.
I did all of this research since I am in the process of restoring a 68' MG Midget that I plan on converting into a supercharged alcohol burner. As far as I can tell no one has done one before and it would be fun as hell to take that little 1275cc A-series engine as far as one can. The car is light, eas
You are forgetting that it has a different stoichiometric ratio so you can get more power because you can burn much more of it than the racing gas (probably 100 low lead avgas given the price) that they were running with. Ideally to maximize the benefits they should be raising the compression ration or increasing the boost (if supercharged or turbocharged) since ethanol has a higher octane (105-115) and also has a much higher latent heat. Additionally there are benefits to adjusting the timing as well which should also be done.
I should have included this initially, but here is the link to the Minnesota statute that mandates 20% ethanol. Also here is the MN senate file on the bill.
And here in Minnesota we have a law that was passed a while ago and signed by now presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty that mandates 20% of motor fuel consumed be ethanol. I forget the date by which this needs to be met, but if 20% isn't reached then all fuel will have to be a minimum E20 instead of the current E10.
Congratulations you have just stumbled upon the issues with ethanol as a general purpose motor fuel. You mention that that your flex fuel car gets 25% less mileage when running on E85, but if you look at the energy content by unit volume of fuel you will see that E85 has closer to 2/3 the energy of regular gas. This show that your car isn't running as efficient as it could be on either fuel since they have very different characteristics (octane, stoichiometric ratio, latent heat).
Also you mention that it is a great racing fuel, which is true. E85 is a good fuel for racing, better would be methanol but that is harder to find. Your friends who race probably just up-jetted their carbs, or put in bigger injectors given the performance increase. If they really want to get the most benefit from E85 they should look in to raising the compression ratio since E85 has an octane in the range of 105-115 and a much higher latent heat than the 100 low lead (avgas) they were previously using. If the vehicles are older they should also consider putting in hardened valve seats. My project car, a 68' MG Midget, is being rebuilt and is going to be a supercharged alcohol burner for the same reasons that your friends are now racing with E85.
Even though I am not a big fan of corn based ethanol as a general purpose motor fuel I am tired of hearing about the "corrosion factors on improperly-engineered cars". Most of what people think are issues caused by ethanol in gas are really issues caused by crappy gas. I have fallen for the its $0.03 cheaper over here at the off brand gas station compared to the other one across the street. Some of those off brand stations sell good gas some of them sell crap gas that makes my car run poorly, but once refilled with a tank of good gas it goes back to running properly. Also it is fine in your small engines, I haven't had a problem in any of my yard equipment with it, and here it is more a matter of the care you give the equipment, as in do you drain the gas out of them when done for the season so it doesn't varnish, absorb water, and plug the carburetor.
Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology
on
IBM Turns 100
·
· Score: 1
I think it was a wonderful thing, but I just found it humors because at first thought it doesn't seem like something they would make during the war, but with a little more thought it seemed reasonable since they did do precision manufacturing. I have been looking for an IBM made M1 carbine ever since I found out they made them. Also I have been looking for a Remington made Russian M91 for much the same reason.
Re:Other uses IBM found for its technology
on
IBM Turns 100
·
· Score: 1
You missed this one M1 carbine. Personally I just find it humorous since it seems out of their area of expertise, but I guess they did have precision manufacturing capabilities.
I highly doubt that MS will dump.NET simply because it is there technology and the control it provides. I would be more worried about them embracing, extending and extinguishing HTML5 and JavaScript as anyone could develop using these free tools instead of Visual Studio.
The ability to track power usage is a big benefit for power companies, but not for the reason you are thinking. Being able to better track usage allows them to better forecast usage. This has 2 benefits, the first being that better daily generation targets can be provided thus allowing base load plants to be used for more of the power. Secondly this will also allow them to run closer to the actual power needs. In both cases this will save the power companies money, and if you are worried about global worming it also reduces emissions. To the consumer this means lower power bills. The energy markets are a regulated monopoly and I know here in Minnesota they have to go and get approval for any rate increases, and are only allowed a fixed percentage of profit.
But even 5% of 1000 MW is still a lot and a 1000 MW is in the right range for a single coal, gas, nuke plant. So assuming 5% transmission loss of 1000 MW gives us 50 MW lost, or the equivalent of about 500 standard 4 cylinder cars running running continuously assuming each car produces about 120 HP.
There are others in addition to GE:
1. ABB
2. Siemens
3. Areva
I have a "smart" meter hooked up to my AC and during the summer months the local power company can turn the AC off for a while during peak times. Since I am at work during most of this time it doesn't bother me. The benefit to me is that it save me $15 a month on my power bill. The control is made by ABB.
Our current grid does dump massive amounts of power, but not into a hole. There are transmission losses when sending the high voltage power from the plant to the local sub station and transformer losses when the high voltage is converted to residential voltage. Now living close to a power plant does not mean that there are less losses because the power you are using may not be coming from the local plant since it may not be running. I work in this industry and am familiar with the various systems that are currently used and are planned to be used. There is room for improvement. Also the more renewable sources of power that are intermittent (solar and wind) the more benefit there is of having a smart grid.
Where I live I have found that a good rule of thumb that accomplishes this. If you are going the speed limit (or close to it) and the light turns yellow if you are passed where the turn lane starts go through, otherwise stop. There are some cases where this doesn't work because of extremely short or long turn lanes, but for probably 95% of the streets I drive on it works perfectly.
Is this a US based bank? If so what is their name as I am going to be switching banks anyway since my current bank decided that they need to charge fees on the old free checking accounts to make up for the possible loss of some swipe fees.
To be fair gaskets, especially automotive ones, are in most cases easily replaced with much more durable ones. When ever I replace automotive gaskets I get the copper ones if available, or the ones with the "lifetime" warranty. If looking for something designed to last I suggest the Model 500 phone, it seems that when a company actually has to support something they do a better job designing it.
You missed the only other good thing the second trilogy had Natalie Portman. I wouldn't even say that the special effects were terribly good. Most of it seemed too forced and unnatural, especially in episode 1.
This makes me wonder about insurance claims since I believe that most insurance companies won't pay if an incident is classified as an act of war. A quick Google search turned up this, and this.
Slashdot Mirror
1. Since the latent heat of ethanol is higher it can provide a benefit in certian cases. These would be cases where you are running a lot of boost, or a lot of compression. This is because as the ethanol makes the phase change from liquid to gas it will help to cool the air charge thus preventing pre-ignition or detonation. This provides a benefit similar to that of having a higher octane.
/. account) you can get about 10% more power out of running ethanol at the expense of burning about 1.5x the fuel. IIRC the stoichiometric ratio for ethanol is somewhere around 9:1 but for regular gas (100LL, regular 87 octane, etc) it is around 14:1, methanol is even worse at around 7:1.
2. The stoichiometric ratio for ethanol does have a benefit if you were to work through the equations. Yes you will burn more fuel each stroke at the correct stoichiometric ratio than with gasoline, but ethanol will release more energy per unit air than gasoline can. From when I last did the calculations (I can't find the link, it may have been before I decided to actually get a
3. No a higher compression ration does not increase the amount of fuel you burn per stroke, all it really does is increase your carnot cycle efficiency. This is most to to the fact that it decreases the distance the flame front has to travel while also increasing the flame speed due to the increased temperature. Because of the increased temperature that you get from a higher compression ratio you either need a higher octane or a fuel with a higher latent heat. Granted alcohols burn cooler leading to a lower maximum theoretical carnot cycle efficiency, but it isn't that much lower if you want to work through the math, but you can really crank up the compression (or boost for those running turbos or superchargers) when using ethanol because of its higher octane and its higher latent heat.
4. Your top fuel dragsters and funny cars are not really running alcohol (their fuel has some in it), but instead a fuel called nitromethane. Typically they run it at a 1:1 fuel air ratio since nitromethane is similar to an explosive and brings with it its own oxidizer. Your are correct in that it does burn cooler, but because the stoichiometric ratio of nitromethane they are able to release more energy per power stroke than with any other fuel. In top fuel racing the fuel isn't 100% nitro methane but is about a 90% nitromethane 10% methanol, the reason for this is because nitromethane is similar to an explosive and when first used there were some very catastrophic incidents with vehicles using it, both the NHRA and IHRA, the 2 drag racing bodies in the US, ban the use of 100% nitromethane. In the alcohol classes (alcohol dragsters and funny cars) all of those vehicles run methanol. The reason for this is exactly what is described in my second point you can burn even more methanol than you can ethanol and in doing so are able to release even more energy.
5. Finally I never said that ethanol was efficient fuel wise, it is actually pretty bad compared to regular gasoline and even worse compared to diesel, but was a good fuel for producing power. I was only indicating that to get the most benefit out of running ethanol as a race fuel you need to do more than just run it in an existing engine at the proper fuel to air ratio. The additional things that should be done would be to increase the boost and or compression ratio, adjust the timing, if switching from a vehicle from something that was originally designed to run leaded gas (pre 1975 in most cases) ensure that you have hardened valve seats put in but this should be done even if not using ethanol as you would want these if running unleaded fuel as well.
I did all of this research since I am in the process of restoring a 68' MG Midget that I plan on converting into a supercharged alcohol burner. As far as I can tell no one has done one before and it would be fun as hell to take that little 1275cc A-series engine as far as one can. The car is light, eas
You are forgetting that it has a different stoichiometric ratio so you can get more power because you can burn much more of it than the racing gas (probably 100 low lead avgas given the price) that they were running with. Ideally to maximize the benefits they should be raising the compression ration or increasing the boost (if supercharged or turbocharged) since ethanol has a higher octane (105-115) and also has a much higher latent heat. Additionally there are benefits to adjusting the timing as well which should also be done.
I should have included this initially, but here is the link to the Minnesota statute that mandates 20% ethanol. Also here is the MN senate file on the bill.
And here in Minnesota we have a law that was passed a while ago and signed by now presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty that mandates 20% of motor fuel consumed be ethanol. I forget the date by which this needs to be met, but if 20% isn't reached then all fuel will have to be a minimum E20 instead of the current E10.
Congratulations you have just stumbled upon the issues with ethanol as a general purpose motor fuel. You mention that that your flex fuel car gets 25% less mileage when running on E85, but if you look at the energy content by unit volume of fuel you will see that E85 has closer to 2/3 the energy of regular gas. This show that your car isn't running as efficient as it could be on either fuel since they have very different characteristics (octane, stoichiometric ratio, latent heat).
Also you mention that it is a great racing fuel, which is true. E85 is a good fuel for racing, better would be methanol but that is harder to find. Your friends who race probably just up-jetted their carbs, or put in bigger injectors given the performance increase. If they really want to get the most benefit from E85 they should look in to raising the compression ratio since E85 has an octane in the range of 105-115 and a much higher latent heat than the 100 low lead (avgas) they were previously using. If the vehicles are older they should also consider putting in hardened valve seats. My project car, a 68' MG Midget, is being rebuilt and is going to be a supercharged alcohol burner for the same reasons that your friends are now racing with E85.
Even though I am not a big fan of corn based ethanol as a general purpose motor fuel I am tired of hearing about the "corrosion factors on improperly-engineered cars". Most of what people think are issues caused by ethanol in gas are really issues caused by crappy gas. I have fallen for the its $0.03 cheaper over here at the off brand gas station compared to the other one across the street. Some of those off brand stations sell good gas some of them sell crap gas that makes my car run poorly, but once refilled with a tank of good gas it goes back to running properly. Also it is fine in your small engines, I haven't had a problem in any of my yard equipment with it, and here it is more a matter of the care you give the equipment, as in do you drain the gas out of them when done for the season so it doesn't varnish, absorb water, and plug the carburetor.
I think it was a wonderful thing, but I just found it humors because at first thought it doesn't seem like something they would make during the war, but with a little more thought it seemed reasonable since they did do precision manufacturing. I have been looking for an IBM made M1 carbine ever since I found out they made them. Also I have been looking for a Remington made Russian M91 for much the same reason.
You missed this one M1 carbine. Personally I just find it humorous since it seems out of their area of expertise, but I guess they did have precision manufacturing capabilities.
I highly doubt that MS will dump .NET simply because it is there technology and the control it provides. I would be more worried about them embracing, extending and extinguishing HTML5 and JavaScript as anyone could develop using these free tools instead of Visual Studio.
It just seemed that you were down playing the losses even 5% is a lot of lost energy and that is all I was trying to show.
The ability to track power usage is a big benefit for power companies, but not for the reason you are thinking. Being able to better track usage allows them to better forecast usage. This has 2 benefits, the first being that better daily generation targets can be provided thus allowing base load plants to be used for more of the power. Secondly this will also allow them to run closer to the actual power needs. In both cases this will save the power companies money, and if you are worried about global worming it also reduces emissions. To the consumer this means lower power bills. The energy markets are a regulated monopoly and I know here in Minnesota they have to go and get approval for any rate increases, and are only allowed a fixed percentage of profit.
But even 5% of 1000 MW is still a lot and a 1000 MW is in the right range for a single coal, gas, nuke plant. So assuming 5% transmission loss of 1000 MW gives us 50 MW lost, or the equivalent of about 500 standard 4 cylinder cars running running continuously assuming each car produces about 120 HP.
There are others in addition to GE:
1. ABB
2. Siemens
3. Areva
I have a "smart" meter hooked up to my AC and during the summer months the local power company can turn the AC off for a while during peak times. Since I am at work during most of this time it doesn't bother me. The benefit to me is that it save me $15 a month on my power bill. The control is made by ABB.
Our current grid does dump massive amounts of power, but not into a hole. There are transmission losses when sending the high voltage power from the plant to the local sub station and transformer losses when the high voltage is converted to residential voltage. Now living close to a power plant does not mean that there are less losses because the power you are using may not be coming from the local plant since it may not be running. I work in this industry and am familiar with the various systems that are currently used and are planned to be used. There is room for improvement. Also the more renewable sources of power that are intermittent (solar and wind) the more benefit there is of having a smart grid.
Where I live I have found that a good rule of thumb that accomplishes this. If you are going the speed limit (or close to it) and the light turns yellow if you are passed where the turn lane starts go through, otherwise stop. There are some cases where this doesn't work because of extremely short or long turn lanes, but for probably 95% of the streets I drive on it works perfectly.
Is this a US based bank? If so what is their name as I am going to be switching banks anyway since my current bank decided that they need to charge fees on the old free checking accounts to make up for the possible loss of some swipe fees.
To be fair gaskets, especially automotive ones, are in most cases easily replaced with much more durable ones. When ever I replace automotive gaskets I get the copper ones if available, or the ones with the "lifetime" warranty. If looking for something designed to last I suggest the Model 500 phone, it seems that when a company actually has to support something they do a better job designing it.
You missed the only other good thing the second trilogy had Natalie Portman. I wouldn't even say that the special effects were terribly good. Most of it seemed too forced and unnatural, especially in episode 1.
Just not American economists.
Really folks 42 is the better number.
I'll believe you (and the rest of Douglas Adams's fandom) when you give us ideas for what to do with the other ten weeks.
Simple answer: 10 week bender.
And Amazon.com is selling it new for $41.63 so this must make it the bargain of a life time.
This makes me wonder about insurance claims since I believe that most insurance companies won't pay if an incident is classified as an act of war. A quick Google search turned up this, and this.
I thought ME stood for Mistake Edition
posting to undo mod
Well most criminals aren't very smart, but if they were then they probably wouldn't need to be criminals.