Re: Nothing like oil?

:: I think most people balk at the lower energy density,

: Alfred Montestruc <montestruc@xxxxxxxxx>
: Set next to hydrogen??

No. Set next to ethanol, as I said, and you quoted:

:: and pine for the ethanol.

: Ethanol costs about as much energy to make as you get.

Shrug. That doesn't stop people pining for its energy density.
Nor (per discussion elsethread) is it a given that it *must* have
such a small EROI.

: It is honestly less toxic than gasoline and not a carcinogen.
: Yes if you drink a significant amount of it, it will kill you. More I
: think than gasoline and it is not a cumulative poison.

I see various numbers. But I see various numbers for toxicity, but they
all seem to be that the LD 50 dose for drinking ethanol is four times
that for methanol. Gasoline, something like 3 times. Neither methanol
nor ethanol is as carcinogenic as gasoline, and both produce (or can be
coaxed to produce) significantly lower levels of nasty chemicals in
the exhaust.

So anyways, there's lots of little wrangling points. It's sort of
rock-paper-scisors; gasoline beats methanol for energy density, ethanol
beats gasoline for toxicity, and methanol beats ethanol for ease of
synthesis.


Wayne Throop throopw@xxxxxxxxx http://sheol.org/throopw
.

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