Bio fuels seem to get a wide variety of reviews. One of the harshest complaints of bio diesel and especially E85 (85% ethanol gasoline) is that it takes as much energy to produce the end product as the product can ultimately produce. This assessment is fairly accurate, especially in the case of the current corn based E85, which uses quite a bit of gasoline or diesel fuel to plant, maintain, and harvest the crop. New technologies that will use all or most of the plant to produce energy may change the equation. Studies are also showing alternative crops like switch grass can produce five times as much energy as it takes to produce fuel from this crop.
Many new vehicles are E85 ready today. My 2005 Nissan Titan is a duel fuel vehicle that can run on regular gasoline or E85. I run E85 whenever possible. Many newer diesel engines are capable of running bio diesel today as well. It’s important to check your vehicles owner’s manuals before you run alternative fuels in them.
We are hoping to grow switch grass in our rural property and distill our own ethanol to mix with 15% regular gasoline to produce our own E85. In addition we are hoping to produce pellets from the waste products of the ethanol production that we can burn in a pellet stove. We have lots of research to do before this “hope” can become a reality.
