All the talk about gas-electric hybrid vehicles is overlooking another area where fuel economy can be realized. No, I am not talking about diesel engines and I am not even thinking about hydrogen power. Instead, corn powered vehicles are coming into their own. Thats right, ethanol, a fuel that has a history going back a full century, may be the fuel of the future. Is ethanol a good choice for a fuel source? Ill let you be the judge of that!
Back during the days that Henry Ford was building cars, he designed his Model T to run on ethanol, a fuel that is typically derived from corn. His idea was to give the driver a choice between gasoline and this particular alternative source of energy. Historically low gas prices however, made the need for ethanol pretty much a moot point at that time. Why fuel up with ethanol when gas was being sold for a quarter or less?
For its part, the U.S. government has long held that ethanol is a good fuel source and has mandated that vehicles built since the early 1980s, have the capacity to run on E10 ethanol a blend consisting of 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline. Since the 1990s another type of ethanol, E85, has been receiving plenty of...