A couple of interesting links from your Amsoil Dealer

The Alternative Fuels Data Center is a vast collection of information on alternative fuels and the vehicles that use them. Alternative fuels described here are those defined by the Energy Policy Act of 1992, including biodiesel, electricity, ethanol, hydrogen, natural gas, and propane. This site has more than 3,000 documents in its database, an interactive fuel station mapping system, current listings of available alternative fuel vehicles, and lots of alternative fuels information and related links.

GasBuddy.com can help you find cheap gas prices in your city. It is a network of more than 173+ gas price information web sites that helps you find low gasoline prices. All web sites are operated by GasBuddy and has the most comprehensive listings of gas prices anywhere.

Ethanol and E85 - Fuels Of The Future?

Copyright © Donovan Baldwin
Lube2005.com

Pure ethanol or E100 is also known as ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol. It is made when corn, grain, or other agricultural products are fermented, distilled, and denatured and because of this, it is a continually renewable resource, a true benefit in the world of alternative fuels. Another benefit is the fact that, unlike many other, mainly petroleum based, fuels, it contributes nothing to the build-up of greenhouse gases. Because of its renewable nature, it is possible to extensively reduce a nation's dependence on foreign oil products.

Pure ethanol is never used as an alternative fuel, but ethanol blends are. For example, E10 is a fuel made of 10 percent ethanol and blended with 90 percent gasoline. The most common blend is E85, a fuel made of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. E85 is officially classified by the U.S. Department of Energy as an alternative energy fuel. It could be used in most cars today that are run on gasoline with some modification, and new, flexible fuel vehicles, are being developed that could use E85. Recently, lobbyists have been pushing for its use in FFVs or flexible fuel vehicles, alternative vehicles that have a lesser impact on the environment than today's gas guzzling cars.

E85 Properties

Why is E85 gaining in popularity to the point that lines of vehicles are being developed that will run on it alone? Compare it to the properties of gasoline, and see for yourself:

• 96 octane to 86-94 octane in gasoline
  
• 12,500 lower heating value to 18,000-19,000 lower heating value of gasoline
  
• 1.4 gallons of E85 is equal to 1 gallon gasoline
  
• Per gallon, E85 gets 72% of the miles that gasoline gets
  
• Holding tank is 1.4 times larger than a gasoline holding tank
  
• In cold weather, E85 starts the car as well as gasoline
  
• Vehicle power is increased 3-5% with E85
  

Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFV)

A flexible fuel vehicle is a car that runs on any ethanol blend, E85 or less, and can also run on regular unleaded gas. They have been in production for almost a decade and continue to be built by some major car manufacturers including Ford, GM, Mercury, Isuzu, and more. Over 2 million of today’s vehicles are flexible fuel vehicles, which can run on ethanol, gasoline, or a mixture of the two. You may own one of these FFV's without even being aware of it. Some of the benefits of flexible fuel vehicles include:

• Emissions that create smog are reduced 25 percent
  
• Cost effectiveness is equal to that of cars run on gasoline
  
• Similar warranties and original equipment are manufactured as they are for gasoline run vehicles
  
• Emissions that create greenhouse gases are reduced 35 to 40 percent
  
• Vehicle horsepower increased up to 5 percent
  
• Fuel is renewable
  
• New vehicles can be ordered with a flexible fuel engine option
  
• More and more E85 pumps are springing up all over the country
  
• Gasoline can be mixed with any amount of E85 if E85 is not available
  

Hybrid Vehicles And Ethanol

Most cars, including hybrid cars have no problems with a 10 percent ethanol blend. However, at this time, the combination of E85 and the hybrid car is only slowly making its way from the drawing board to the highway. Some instances have occurred where the two have been combined, but these are primarily in fleet situations and concept cars so far. However, it shouldn't be too long before you can buy a hybrid car that will run on E85.

Drawbacks of E85

There are a few disadvantages to E85 at this point in the game, though they hardly outweigh the benefits. Some of these include:

• The cost of E85 is formidable due to the cost of the fermentation process but research has already begun to develop a new and cheaper fermentation process that utilizes lower-grade feed stocks.
  
• Ethanol is quite a bit more corrosive than gasoline, which could lead to engine problems.
  
• Issues of things like vapor lock, flame visibility, and cold starts have experts concerned.
  
• The miles per gallon of E85 is less efficient than the miles per gallons of gasoline.
  
• It's not easy to find E85 gasoline tanks because distribution is difficult.
  

One present disadvantage that DOES outweigh the ecological value for the consumer is the scarcity of locations selling E85. This will probably continue to change over time however. For those in the military, there are some military bases where E85 can be found

Despite the limitations, ethanol based alternative fuels like E85 are an incredible improvement over the use of gasoline. Some car manufacturers are offering to upgrade regular engines to E85 capability for no cost, and the fact that flexible fuel vehicles are not reliant upon E85 but can use gasoline in any combination with the ethanol blend makes it a simple choice. Scientists and researchers are working on ways to fix the remaining issues. This new technology is more than a trend but the direction in which the future is taking drivers.

You can learn more about alternative fuels and flexible fuel vehicles, including what vehicles are flexible fuel vehicles, and where to find E85, at the United States Government's Alternative Fuel Data Center.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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The author is retired from the Army after 21 years of service, has worked as an accountant, optical lab manager, restaurant manager, and instructor. He has been a member of Mensa for several years, and has written and published poetry, essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40 years. He is keenly interested in the fuels of the future, America's dependence on foreign oil, the physical limits of stores of petroleum based products, and the futures of his grandchildren. Learn more about hybrid cars, and fuel economy.
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Fuel Economy: Choices

Fuel Economy And Personal Choices
By Donovan Baldwin

I used to be an over-the-road, long haul truck driver. For a while, I even owned and drove my own truck. As an owner-operator, I became interested in fuel economy, and very aware of how personal choices can affect fuel economy and fuel costs.

I'm off the road now, although I still travel a great deal, mainly by car. Like everyone else, I have listened to, and watched, news stories, discussions, and interviews on the present and future state of energy and energy sources.

As a business man and private citizen who travels extensively by car, both for business and pleasure, I am concerned about present costs and those which might be expected in the future.

Even more, however, I am becoming concerned about what might be my future, if I live long enough, and what will almost certainly be the energy future of my grandchildren, if not my children. As a result of these concerns, I have begun to think more about the changes that I and others can make to alleviate some of the coming ecological and economic problems related to fuel.

Because of my experiences past and present, I have some thoughts on the subjects of travel, the operation of vehicles, and the modern driver. I would like to make a couple of points, particularly as these subjects and fuel economy meet at the nexus of choice.

For years, I have watched drivers drive far in excess of the posted speeds or rational speeds for the conditions in which they found themselves. I have witnessed several situations in which the driver created or arrived at a dangerous situation as a result of this need for speed and I have had several opportunities to view the sad results of these choices. Many of these individuals will eventually either grow up or remove themselves from the gene pool. In the meantime, they will continue to drive in this manner, and many will drive this way into old age. I remember one long traffic jam in Utah that resulted from a driver's attempt to find out what his new Porsche "could do". In the words of another truck driver on the scene, "It could kill him. That's what it could do."

However, let's just talk about speed from the viewpoint of fuel economy. I regularly see interviews with "the consumer" on TV. Often these people are bemoaning the money they have to spend on fuel. Daily, these people, or those just like them, blow down the road at high rates of speed when driving a few miles more slowly could result in appreciable real money savings, especially at today's fuel prices. Many of these cars are hardly fuel efficient in the first place, and, when operating at such high speeds become super-gas-guzzlers! Many of these people also rush up to stop signs and stop lights, maintaining their speed or accelerating until the last minute before treading heavily on the brake. They seem to give no thought to the fact that accelerating to a place where you are going to have to stop is equivalent to throwing money out the window, not to mention simply wasting fuel and causing the next expensive brake job to arrive more quickly. For many, the simple act of looking at what is happening ahead of them and removing their foot from the accelerator before arriving at a point where they HAVE TO STOP could result in savings in fuel and money.

There are many fuel efficient cars available, including a wide and growing range of hybrid cars, such as the Toyota Prius I recently bought. But, there are a great many people who insist on purchasing gas-guzzling SUV's or so-called luxury vehicles, even when they are not needed! I recently took a trip in my very comfortable Prius and averaged approximately 56 miles per gallon. Interestingly enough, on the second day of my trip, I was passed by another Prius going about 70 miles per hour. The owner had possibly bought a hybrid vehicle in hopes of saving money by improved fuel economy, but apparently chose not to change his or her driving habits (they went by too fast for me to see if it was a man or a woman driver) to get the maximum possible fuel economy.

I am sure that many SUV owners, as well as the rest of the public, wish they could save even a few cents on fuel. Properly inflated tires can help do this as can properly maintained cars in general. Every day, I see several cars with obvious low tires, and believe I can accurately assume that many drivers do not perform regular maintenance checks on their vehicles nor do they have regular oil changes done.

In an article I wrote about a year ago, I mentioned how a service station owner had pointed out to me years ago that his number of towing calls, tire sales, and vehicle repairs had increased since the advent of self-service gas stations and convenience stores. Relatively few people then, and probably not so many today, performed the regular maintenance chores necessary for optimum vehicle life and efficiency, as well as fuel economy.

These are just a few choices each of us has almost every day. Each is an opportunity to save money, lower personal expenses, and help, at least in some small way, to extend the dwindling resources available to all of us. Accepting the responsibility to make these decisions and act on them as a mature and responsible individual is a way to reduce out-of-pocket fuel costs, as well as the depletion of a diminishing supply of petroleum for fuel and lubrication of our beloved vehicles.

Other choices we might make could include the use of synthetic lubricants, alternative fuels such as ethanol, particularly E85, or biodiesel.

Rather than simply demanding that the government should "do something", we should tell them what to do! We can demand that they choose to help expand the development of renewable energy technology, synthetic petroleum substitutes, and alternative fuels while ending the appearance of collusion between government and oil interests.

Our choices, and those of business and government, will determine the future conditions of life on this planet, as well as the current condition of our personal finances.

Learn more about alternative fuels and flexible fuel vehicles, including what vehicles are flexible fuel vehicles, and where to find E85, at the United States Government's Alternative Fuel Data Center.

The author is retired from the Army after 21 years of service, has worked as an accountant, optical lab manager, restaurant manager, and instructor. He has been a member of Mensa for several years, and has written and published poetry, essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40 years. He is keenly interested in the fuels of the future, America's dependence on foreign oil, the physical limits of stores of petroleum based products, and the futures of his grandchildren. Learn more about hybrid cars, and fuel economy.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Donovan_Baldwin

Hybrid Vehicle Technology

Copyright © Donovan Baldwin
Lube2005.com

LEADING UP TO THE NEED FOR A HYBRID VEHICLE

For most of the lifetime of automobiles, propulsion has been provided by the gasoline or diesel powered internal combustion type of engine. There have been brief flirtations with steam, electricity, and vehicles that could use a variety of fuels, but most of these have fallen by the wayside as the gasoline engine pushed billions of vehicles down the road.

However, this single-minded dependence on petroleum-based fuels, and lubricants too, has placed the planet on the edge of a new future...a future without petroleum or, at best, with limited petroleum resources. Government, business, and designers have combined efforts to come up with some sort of solution to at least part of the problem of maintaining our present way of life with the fact of decreasing petroleum supplies.

In previous incarnations of the personal vehicle, steam did not prove suitable for simple, daily operations, and electricity was limited by the speed with which battery charges dissipated, the length of time required for recharging, and the need to redesign and create an infrastructure for electric cars.

The recent solution has been the hybrid vehicle. The hybrid car combines gasoline engine technology, already fairly highly advanced, with a battery/electric motor combination, which also uses technology that is well known.

WHAT A HYBRID VEHICLE DOES

The gasoline powered engine can provide higher, sustained speeds for long periods of time and recharge the battery as needed by means of a generator (more on this in a moment). The battery/electric motor can provide the power to begin moving the hybrid vehicle, continue moving it at lower speeds and can power systems such as lights, radio, and air conditioner when the vehicle is at a stop. This simple step of having the vehicle turn the engine off during idle times such as at stop signs, stop lights, drive-thrus, and stop-and-go traffic can result in quite a fuel savings by itself.

The forward movement of the vehicle itself can help store power in the battery by turning the electric generator. One interesting aspect of this is that the electric generator which recharges the battery when turning in one direction is also the electric motor which draws power from the battery to move the car at lower speeds. This, in its most basic form, is done by reversing the spin of the central rotor of the generator/motor. This use of the same device to power the car and recharge the battery also allows for a unique feature - regenerative braking.

REGENERATIVE BRAKING IN A HYBRID VEHICLE

Regenerative braking is very simple in concept and turns a frequent and unavoidable expense into an asset in more than one way. In an ordinary vehicle, brake pads or shoes press against a rotor or drum to slow and stop the vehicle. This generates a lot of heat. Brake pads, shoes, rotors, and drums wear out due to the friction and heat and have to be replaced regularly. This can be expensive.

Stop-and-go city driving, tends to be the place where a large amount of braking occurs, so this is where most of the wear on brake parts occurs as well. With a regenerative braking system, such as that in the Toyota Prius hybrid, most braking will actually be provided by the electric motor itself at slower speeds. As you apply the brake, the electric motor which was propelling the car now reverses itself and becomes a generator recharging the battery as you slow and stop. The reversed motor creates torque which slows the vehicle and brings it to a stop, so the regular brake parts receive a lot less wear and need to be replaced less often.

FUEL ECONOMY AND "PLAYING THE LIGHTS" WITH A HYBRID VEHICLE

Add into the mix that stop-and-go city driving burns a lot of fuel. In a gasoline or diesel powered automobile, it takes much larger amounts of fuel to start a vehicle from a stop than to keep it moving. It requires less fuel to pick your speed back up when you have slowed down than to come to a complete stop and have to start from that point. Some truck drivers (and trucks burn a lot of fuel), have been taught to view events ahead and take their foot off the accelerator if they feel they may have to stop at a light that is red or "stale" green, or if there is congestion ahead which will slow them down anyway. This is called "playing the lights" and can result in significant fuel savings in any vehicle. A hybrid vehicle with regenerative braking is going to be saving wear and tear on brake parts, and taking it a little easier on the "go pedal" will help save even more in fuel costs if the driver is "playing the lights".

A hybrid vehicle commonly improves fuel economy by using the electric motor to start the vehicle moving and by letting the battery take care of times that the car would normally be idling. A well designed hybrid car also sometimes allows the electric motor to assist the gasoline engine as well, thus adding to the fuel economy of a hybrid vehicle over a standard petroleum fuel car.

NOT ALL HYBRIDS ARE CREATED EQUAL

There are hybrid SUV's and trucks, but these will not get the fuel economy of a smaller, lighter hybrid vehicle such as the Toyota Prius. Just to give an idea of the range, among hybrid cars, according to the federal government's Fuel Economy website at http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/hybrid_sbs.shtml , the 2006 Honda Accord got an average of 28 MPG, while the Honda Insight got an average of 56 MPG, and the Toyota Prius got an average of 55 MPG. To illustrate how the difference in model can make a difference in fuel economy even among hybrid vehicles, hardly any SUV listed on the government's website got over 34 MPG combined, and neither of the two hybrid trucks listed on my visit to the website, averaged over 20 MPG combined city and highway.

NOTE: I recently bought a Toyota Prius, and have been averaging almost exactly 55 MPG. I went on a trip, of over 2,000 miles, and 55 MPG was the fuel average for almost the entire trip. However, to emphasize how driving habits affect fuel economy, for over 1700 miles, I usually drove between 60 and 64 miles per hour on the highway, but during the last leg of my trip, I was in a hurry to get home and drove at 70 miles per hour. Driving at that speed cut my fuel economy down to under 50 MPG for that last portion of my trip.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
---------------------------------------------
The author is retired from the Army after 21 years of service, has worked as an accountant, optical lab manager, restaurant manager, and instructor. He has been a member of Mensa for several years, and has written and published poetry, essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40 years. He is keenly interested in the fuels of the future, America's dependence on foreign oil, the physical limits of stores of petroleum based products, and the futures of his grandchildren. Learn more about hybrid cars, and fuel economy.
---------------------------------------------

NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this
article within your website or newsletter as long
as you leave the article fully intact and include
the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)

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Save with Amsoil synthetic motor oil.