[Z06] [Article] Katech CEO and Technical Director Fritz Kayl talks about E85 in ALMS
03-05-2008, 08:09 PM
#1
Premium Supporting Vendor
Thread Starter
[Article] Katech CEO and Technical Director Fritz Kayl talks about E85 in ALMS
03-05-2008, 08:47 PM
#3
Premium Supporting Vendor
Thread Starter
03-06-2008, 07:46 AM
#6
Drifting
Not from a racing perspective ... I had hopes for the future that this fuel might have played a role in.
Ethanol can be derived from a large number of biological sources including corn, wheat, sugar beets, rapeseed and potatoes. (Rapeseed martini, anyone?) The vast majority of the 4 billion gallons of fuel grade ethanol produced in America in 2005 came from corn and with corn averaging over $5 per bushel; more acres are being planted even as we speak. With present technology an acre will produce about 335 gallons of ethanol. Projections as high as 1500 gallons per acre are dependent upon significant advances in the weight of biomass produced per acre and the amount of ethanol extracted from each ton of biomass. To replace 85 percent of the 146 billion gallons of gasoline burned in the U.S. in 2005 using present production efficiencies, it would require something north of 370 million acres of corn. In 2008 more acres of corn will be planted than any year since WWII. The total will still be less than 100 million acres. The recent global pressure on food prices, partly a result of using corn, wheat and other crops as the base for fuel production, should come as no surprise.
It is therefore extremely unlikely that ethanol produced in the United States will significantly decrease our “petroleum dependence” any time soon. And even the continuing efforts to increase production will have substantial related costs. The amount of fuel burned by racing vehicles around the world is certainly less than .01 percent of total consumption, converting most to ethanol or ethanol blends will have undetectable impact.
Stanford professor and atmospheric scientist Mark Z. Jacobson has been studying the composition of the atmosphere in detail with the aid of a sophisticated computer model called GATOR-GCMM (Gas, Aerosol, Transport, Radiation General Circulation and Mesoscale Model). This research tool accounts for the chemical changes that take place in the atmosphere and the transport of gases across the United States. Previous models were considerably less refined and tended to simply scale the levels of measured pollutants. Measuring the broad impact on health was the focus of Dr. Jacobson’s computer runs evaluating ethanol E85. Using the Los Angeles basin as a representative population Professor Jacobson’s simulation showed switching to E85 could result in slightly higher ozone-related mortality, hospitalization, and asthma. Cancer rates from burning gasoline or E85 were similar. These are merely the results of a simulation, however well designed, but there is a large real-world “experiment” available to test the model. Brazil has approximately 5 million vehicles running on 100 percent ethanol and twice that many on a gasoline/ethanol blend under a program introduced in 1979. The pollutants predicted by the GATOR-GCMM model were indeed observed in Brazil, along with the predicted health issues.
Sigh ......
Ethanol can be derived from a large number of biological sources including corn, wheat, sugar beets, rapeseed and potatoes. (Rapeseed martini, anyone?) The vast majority of the 4 billion gallons of fuel grade ethanol produced in America in 2005 came from corn and with corn averaging over $5 per bushel; more acres are being planted even as we speak. With present technology an acre will produce about 335 gallons of ethanol. Projections as high as 1500 gallons per acre are dependent upon significant advances in the weight of biomass produced per acre and the amount of ethanol extracted from each ton of biomass. To replace 85 percent of the 146 billion gallons of gasoline burned in the U.S. in 2005 using present production efficiencies, it would require something north of 370 million acres of corn. In 2008 more acres of corn will be planted than any year since WWII. The total will still be less than 100 million acres. The recent global pressure on food prices, partly a result of using corn, wheat and other crops as the base for fuel production, should come as no surprise.
It is therefore extremely unlikely that ethanol produced in the United States will significantly decrease our “petroleum dependence” any time soon. And even the continuing efforts to increase production will have substantial related costs. The amount of fuel burned by racing vehicles around the world is certainly less than .01 percent of total consumption, converting most to ethanol or ethanol blends will have undetectable impact.
Stanford professor and atmospheric scientist Mark Z. Jacobson has been studying the composition of the atmosphere in detail with the aid of a sophisticated computer model called GATOR-GCMM (Gas, Aerosol, Transport, Radiation General Circulation and Mesoscale Model). This research tool accounts for the chemical changes that take place in the atmosphere and the transport of gases across the United States. Previous models were considerably less refined and tended to simply scale the levels of measured pollutants. Measuring the broad impact on health was the focus of Dr. Jacobson’s computer runs evaluating ethanol E85. Using the Los Angeles basin as a representative population Professor Jacobson’s simulation showed switching to E85 could result in slightly higher ozone-related mortality, hospitalization, and asthma. Cancer rates from burning gasoline or E85 were similar. These are merely the results of a simulation, however well designed, but there is a large real-world “experiment” available to test the model. Brazil has approximately 5 million vehicles running on 100 percent ethanol and twice that many on a gasoline/ethanol blend under a program introduced in 1979. The pollutants predicted by the GATOR-GCMM model were indeed observed in Brazil, along with the predicted health issues.
Sigh ......
03-06-2008, 10:11 AM
#7
Le Mans Master
Thanks for the post, Jason. Very interesting, particularly about the weight swings. It will be difficult for other race teams to keep up with the technology the Corvette Team already has.
Jim
Jim
