Bio-gasoline

Thanks for the GA. I guess I will start using wiki more.

There is a new route to getting oil fuels from sunlight using Diatoms. Please see this review:
Milking diatoms – a new route to sustainable energy
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/sep252009/748.pdf

Thanks that was a excellent article. How long do you think it will be before that becomes a reality?

The basics are known. As it is said, the devil is in the details. It is the technology of the panel that is likely to be the stumbling block. With some help from the medical device industry with its thin films and nano particle drug delivery systems this may happen sooner than later.

Back in my undergraduate years in the 1960's, I devised a set of chemical reactions to convert animal fat to gasoline. I submitted them to Dr Otken, my professor, and asked him if they would work. His reply was that the Chemistry was valid, and I got extra credit for the outside work. His next questions put it in proper perspective: 1. How much would it cost to make a gallon of gasoline? (about $8.00 at that time) 2. What is the pump price for a gallon of gasoline? (39 cents at that time). So the chemistry still works, the problem is the cost to make it. I can make ethanol from cellulose for less than $1.00 per gallon, so that is more viable at this time.

As for the supposed inferiority of ethanol as a fuel, although it does contain about 40% fewer BTU per gallon than gasoline, the gasoline leaves about 40% unburned to go out the tailpipe while about 95% of the ethanol gets burned. The energy that gets to the wheels is close to the same. If the fuel/air ratio and ignition timing are set for optimum performance with ethanol, performance will fall off when switching to gasoline. This has been noted also when the vehicle has been tuned for optimum perforance with gasoline, performance falls off when switching to ethanol. The two burn at different rates.

As for the supposed inferiority of ethanol as a fuel, although it does contain about 40% fewer BTU per gallon than gasoline, the gasoline leaves about 40% unburned to go out the tailpipe while about 95% of the ethanol gets burned.

I don't really agree with this statement.

How can it be that in a closed combustion chamber with nearly equal temperature throughout that 40% of the fuel is not being burned?

I agree that there is some unburned portion of the fuel due to "wall quenching" where the temperature of the burning gases goes below ignition temperature very close to the wall of the combustion chamber, namely that of cylinder, piston and cylinder head surfaces as these are water cooled to allow the lubricants to do their job.

The volume in the quench area is very small as the thickness is not very much. This volume is proportionally the same for all fuels.