[BMWCSRegistry] Roundel question FF/WOB Hydrogen & Ethanol

Art Wegweiser art at bmwcsregistry.org
Sun Sep 23 13:49:19 EDT 2007


Mike,
Thanks for the reply.
Costs and environmental damage from hydrocarbon production and large 
scale mining of a relatively rare minerals need to be considered. 
For the near and medium future we will need these to continue.
If hydrogen requires natural gas and a catalyst -  say Platinum or 
such - these of course require expending fossil fuel to produce and 
all along the mining/pumping, transport and refining process.

So does the clamor for Ethanol (surprise: vigorously touted by 
Senators from Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas) which require lots of 
machines burning diesel, using fertilizer and pesticides for corn, 
removes from usage of land for other purposes such - as hey, food! 
Ask a Mexican about the large price increase of their staple 
tortillas.

Ethanol cannot be transported via a much cheaper pipeline line as can 
petroleum.
Hydrocarbon drilling still needed to produce the fuel for ethanol plants.
The ethanol thing reached even down to road side sweet corn stands 
which ask a lot more for corn than last year. I plan to freeze a 
bunch even though it is not same as eating and picking the same day.
Few city people can hardly appreciate how good it can be.

Don't try spent fryer oil from Wendy's or Hardees.   Side Comment: 
Amazing that Hardee's is still in business for the crap they  purport 
is food for humans.
Regardless, Biofuel will not work in a Coupe. But the current 15% 
mandated ethanol can no longer be avoided.
BMW issued a warning some time ago about Ethanol use  because it rots 
rubber. Some old stock but never used stuff as well.
Besides I don't care to go down the road with an exhaust smell like 
Nathan's did when I got off the subway at Coney Island. It was really 
incredibly wonderful for me back long ago.  One instantly  felt the 
excitement and magic of the place when stepping off the subway and 
knew where you were.

I know the final numbers are not in or totally reliable but evidence 
suggestions that this is not the way out except to profit giant 
agribusiness, cultivate votes for the Midwest Congress and only maybe 
a few independent farmers who want to hang on to their land.

Art




At 4:16 PM -0400 9/21/07, Michael Eaton wrote:
>Art,
>
>If I recall correctly, the majority of the industrial H2 gas 
>produced comes from passing natural gas (pardon the pun) over a 
>catalyst.  So the supposedly environmentally friendly fuel will 
>still come from fossil fuel sources, at least in the near term.
>
>Mike
>
>>From: Art Wegweiser <art at bmwcsregistry.org>
>>To: JamesChapa at aol.com, BMWCSRegistry at idb.ded.forest.net
>>Subject: [BMWCSRegistry] :  Roundel question FF/WOB
>>Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:56:40 -0400
>>
>>Actually, if I recall correctly, BMW ran some TV ads a few years 
>>ago - among the several really bad ones more recently - which 
>>showed an E9 getting smashed up and from the wreckage a 7 series 
>>something morphed. Was I little pissed? Did Karmann invent a new 
>>and improved method of rusting?
>>
>>Their  latest great effort I have seen, touts something called a Hydrogen 7.
>>"When the World is ready, we will be." says the voice over.
>>Right - put this thing in mothballs for a few decades until a 
>>proper network of Hindenberg filling stations are established.
>>How ironic - a disaster named after German ruler and now the first 
>>announced H2 vehicle comes from Deutschland.
>>Not having had a chemistry course since around 1953, I forget how 
>>Hydrogen is produced other than passing an electric current through 
>>water.
>>
>>Art
>>Drive now, Talk later.

-- 






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