Tom Caracciolo

BlueFire Ethanol Fuels: Converting Garbage Into Profits

Just two days ago I asked two recently retired chemical engineers, “why are we in the U.S. not proceeding full bore with the production of cellulosic ethanol and doing whatever is necessary to distribute this clean burning fuel to every gas station in the U.S.? The source of cellulosic material in unlimited. We have the capability of installing one ethanol tank in every gas station served by a blending pump from which a customer can choose from E10, E20, E30, E40 or E85 to fill his or her tank. The price per gallon decreases proportionately with each higher blend of ethanol with the traditional regular gasoline. (E10=10% ethanol, E20 = 20% ethanol, E30 = 30% ethanol, and so on.) If all of our gas driven vehicles suddenly used E30 there would be an immediate drop of 30% use of imported crude oil destined for our transportation needs. Further, when enough ethanol is produced, we can further displace crude oil by using E85 in all of our Flex Fuel vehicles” thereby even more seriously reducing our need for imported oil.”

The response from these two chemical engineers was immediate. They said that our federal government is purposely delaying the widespread use of ethanol because special interests through the use of lobbyists are seriously hindering the use of alternative fuel. For example, the exorbitant import tax currently placed on importing ethanol from Brazil. Two special interests that have control of our Congress, Senate and Executive Branch in Washington DC in this instance are: 1. our big oil companies because every gallon of ethanol reduces their profit on every gallon of gasoline that is displaced; and, 2. our U.S. farmers that grow and sell corn want to continue the excess profits they are receiving for every bushel of corn. They know that ethanol made from unlimited sources of cellulose will eventually completely end the use of ethanol made from corn.