Some time ago I did a bit of reading on it, probably found this link:
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/01/how-did-lead-get-our-gasoline-anyway
Which I want to say lead to this reading:
http://www.thenation.com/print/article/secret-history-lead
But it was a while ago, and I can't find my notes, go figure.

In short, the need to boost octane goes back to the beginning.  And oddly enough, ethanol was a leading contender for that additive!  Yet lead won out, against its well-known health drawbacks.

The most interesting thing I got from that reading was the notion that, had big biz not won out, any and all pipelines would have been made from the get-go to handle the corrosive ethanol which otherwise is trucked.  Or at least that was my thought about the matter.  Might have had some portion of our fuel supply always renewable.  Or at the very least had avoided the lead debacle.  [Maybe not, hindsight isn't 20/20.]

Shawn Upton

-----Original Message-----
From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Pete
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2014 10:12 AM
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Subject: Re: [TN] NTC - I believe ... (my credo)

Some good answers here, led me to do some more research

About 1/3 of the US corn crop goes towards livestock feed.
13% is exported.
40% is used for ethanol production
That leaves 14% for food and beverage (including oils, syrups, sugars)

Ethanol is being used in some cases to replace MTBE, to increase octane rating.  Why?  Because of it's resistance to ignition.  This is  very tiny percentage of the gasoline blend.  E10 and E85 are ethanol as an attempt to replace fossil fuels.  However, that resistance to ignition, when used at 10% or 86% is what makes it an inefficient fuel, increasing consumption by 3% or 25% respectively.  It takes one unit of fossil fuel to generate 1.3 units of (less efficient) ethanol fuel.

Since 1980, the ethanol industry has received $45B in government subsidies.

The windmills don't seem so bad anymore.

Pete

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