Isn't it a good idea to drive flex fuel vehicles?

Question

I think we need to stop sending so much money to the middle east. I'm going to get a flex fuel vehicle for this reason alone. Is anybody with me. Let's show them we can make our own fuel.

Answer 1

Flex fuel vehicles are a waste of time unless you live near an E85 station, which most of us don't.

However, if you're the type of person that can and will make your own ethanol, then you could easily do your own flex-fuel conversion and save the price of a new car too.

I'll go Flex Fuel when ethanol no longer depends on food crops and gov't subsidies to survive. In the mean time, I'm going with CNG since I live near a station, it's pumped into my house, it's $2 cheaper than gas and I can make it if I had to.

But yeah, I'm with you. I'm sick of paying middle eastern countries to try to kill me.

Answer 2

It's only good if you live by an E85 station.

First, I think the USA should use algea ethanol istead of corn.

Algae Biofuel

-With our current biodiesel feedstocks, like soy and palm, there’s no way we could grow enough to supply all of our transportation needs.  In fact, it would actually require twice the land area of the US devoted to soybean production to meet current heating and transportation needs.

-Algae, on the other hand, could supply all U.S. diesel power using a mere 0.2% of the nation’s land.

-Enough algae can be grown to replace all transportation fuels in the U.S. on only 15,000 square miles or 4.5 million acres of land.

- Algae is the highest yielding feedstock for biodiesel, producing 24 times more oil per acre, on average, than the next leading feedstock--palm oil at 635 gallons/acre/year.

-One company can produce 180,000 gallons of biodiesel every year from just one acre of algae. That comes to about 4,000 barrels, at a cost of $25 per barrel or $.59 per gallon.

-To put that in perspective, it takes 3,750 acres of soy to make the same amount of biodiesel at a cost of about $2.50 per barrel for 4,000 barrels.

-It is possible to use human sewage and wastewater from agricultural endeavors to enhance the growth of algae.  In fact, when done right, algae can double and even triple overnight with the addition of these fertilizers.

-Plus, as algae grows it absorbs C02 from the air.

-In addition, fertilizer for other food crops can be produced by using the leftover nutrients that aren’t used to make the biofuel.

-It can absorb pollution from factories.

Answer 3

while flex fuel vehicles are a good way to go, they are not the answer for our long term energy needs. in the future we are going to have to have vehicles that run on gasoline, propane, methane, alcohol, diesel, electric, or hydraulic power, or a combination of the above.