Why didn't Henry Ford design his cars for ethanol in the first place?

Question

It's not like ethanol is a new chemical; people have been distilling moonshine long before the United States was settled.

Was there some engineering reason Henry Ford decided against using ethanol in the Model T?

Answer 1

He designed it for a fuel that had little use at that point so it was cheap. Corn could be used for food and whiskey and was expensive compared to gasoline. I still find it interesting that the envirowhackos still prefor corn to go into a car engine rather than someone's belly especially if that person is starving.

Answer 2

Ethanol was very expensive to produce, and still is. Oil was cheap and plentiful.

Answer 3

The interanal combustion engine was origionally designed to run on peanut oil or in laymans terms, a type of biodiesel.

Answer 4

The early 1900s and oil was plentiful and noone forsaw an energy crisis a hundred years later

Answer 5

Because gasoline was cheaper (they actually threw it away when first refining oil to make heating oil) and easier to ignite.  Ignition and fuel systems in the first cars were very primitive.  Gas worked, ethanol would have been a problem.

Answer 6

Alcohol is simply more expensive, thus not competative as a fuel.

Answer 7

The same reason we don't really use it now. We don't have the land space available to grow the corn (or other produce) to use for our current demand. And it's mass production drives up the price of dairy, corn fed meat, and all other American grown produce because farmland becomes limited when most of it is used for the production of ethanol.

Plus, ethanol is an inefficient fuel source. You have to use more of it than gasoline to get the same energy output, so you would not be saving money anyway. And we have federal regulations in place that requires ethanol manufacturers to add a certain percent of gasoline to ethanol to prevent people from drinking it, so it would not eliminate our consumption of gasoline in our cars, in any case.

It simply is not possible to drive all our cars on ethanol, no matter what advocates say.

Oops I sort of went off point didn't I? To answer your question, I suppose the reason was the inferior fuel efficiency of ethanol vs. gasoline.

Answer 8

he jes wasn't much of a thinker.

Answer 9

fwiw, the internal combustion engine was designed in the 1700's.

it fuel source was coal dust. obviously it didn't work too well.

when oil was refined, gasoline (actually there is no such thing as "gasoline", it's a mixture of different distillates), and naptha (lighter fluid), were the first fuels used.

the main distillate worth money at the time was kerosene (lamp oil).

the lighter fractions (iso-octane[gasoline]) where simply thrown out, because it was too dangerous to use as lamp fuel.

so it was a cheap, plentiful by-product of oil refining.

another factor is gasoline is a better fuel than ethonal. it contains more energy (gallon for gallon) the alcohol type fuels.

if there is a fire, it's more readily noticed, so there is a safety factor as well.

peanut oil was never considered for use in spark ignition type engines. that was used for diesel or compression ignition type engines.

heavy oils would foul the spark plugs and fail to vaporize (especially when cold ) in a spark ignition engine.

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edit:

contrary to what MS says, HIS article CLEARLY STATES:

"Ford's research into ethanol goes all the way back to Henry Ford's Model T, designed to run on ethanol, GASOLINE, or a combination of the two"

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brainwashed?

big oil liars?

why do YOU have to mislead people?

you and your type just lose credibility when you do this.

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AND while were on the subject of gross ignorance....

the model t was NOT the first automobile ever produced.

it was the first assembly line produced automobile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automobile

please learn of what you speak before you call others "ignorant"

Answer 10

These answers are all wrong and it proves the gross ignorance of the general public when it comes to ethanol.  The Model T, the first car ever built, ran on ethanol ONLY.  It did NOT run on gasoline.  It was only after prohibition, when alcohol was banned, that Ford switched to gasoline cars.  The Model T by Henry Ford and all the first cars ran on ethanol exclusively.  Below is the link to prove it!  Look at the 2nd pic down and caption.  The Model T was designed to run on ethanol, not gas!!!!!!!!!!! Don't be brainwashed by big oil liars.