Time: Fri Nov 01 07:45:06 1996 To: scott.bergeson@ucs.org (SCOTT BERGESON) From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar] Subject: Re: Oil and Alcohol Cc: Bcc: I was using the term "alcohol" to embrace all the vegetable variants you mention. Am I not correct that methanol has a higher flame velocity than gasoline? Lead was used extensively for retarding flame propagation, until its health effects were recognized. I seem to remember that Henry Ford wrote a lot on this subject, and his writings were suppressed. During his era, a large percentage of the "fleet" was powered by methanol and "alcohol"-based fueld. /s/ Paul Mitchell At 11:08 PM 10/31/96 -0700, you wrote: > >On Thu, 31 Oct 1996 09:50:03 -0700 (MST) you wrote: > >>Alcohol is a far superior >>fuel, because it burns so clean, >>and has much higher energy during >>oxidation. Only problem is that >>it has a much faster flame velocity, >>so you must use additives to retard >>the flame, otherwise you get >>engine knock. Knock occurs when >>the flame is traveling faster than >>the piston head, so it "slaps" the >>piston with a shock wave, rather >>than "pushing" on it gently. > >Backwards. 'Octane' is slowness of or resistance to >burning. Alcohol burns much slower and cooler than >petroleum ether (early version of 'gasoline') so has >higher octane. Reformed and isomerized gasoline has >higher octane, but only became available during the >WWII era. Alcohol makes a good additive to slow the >combustion of gasoline but has *lower* energy. You mean lower "btu's" per volume, yes? Do you have any numbers? BTU-content is only one factor, obviously. Efficiency is another. Have you ever heard of the Pogue carburetor? > >An ideal automotive fuel would contain much energy >but would still burn slowly and cleanly. Such an ideal escapes us at the present time, yes? Hydrogen >is an exception, in that it burns rapidly, but only >ignites at high temperature so resists pre-ignition. Also very explosive. > >>go to the Indy 500, where all the >>cars are burning very high-octane >>methanol hybrids! Methanol is vegetable >>matter, without needing to cure in the >>ground for 20 million years. > >Actually methanol can be made from almost anything >containing carbon, including vegetable matter, and water. > >>Since Indy cars are pushing 14,000+ rpm, their >>pistons are moving fast enough to prevent knocking >>due to the high flame velocities of alcohol- >>based fuels. > >The main concern is the high compression ratios the >engines in race cars use, which heats the fuel-air >mixture more, thus increasing the octane requirement. >Any fuel other than an alcohol, methane (CNG), hydrogen >or ammonia would not be adequate for those very high >compression ratios. > >The major reason for suppression of alcohol was that any farmer >could make his own automotive fuel rather than needing to buy >it from a monopolistic oil/refinery/distribution company. These >possibilities remain for methanol and methane. There was an >article about biogas converters in "Utah Science" about 1974. > >P.S. I only got parts 2 and 3 of the 7 parts of your "Traveling >is a right" posts. Did you post the other 5 parts to L&J? > >
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