Are Flex Fuel And Biodiesel Viable Options?

By:Mike Eggert

Once thought of as only a dream, Flex fuel vehicles are fast becoming a reality. The high cost of gasoline and fuels like Diesel have prompted auto makers around the world to start building automobiles that will burn more than one type of fuel. For example, the country of Brazil for over 10 years now have been producing there own Ethanol product and are almost completely independent of Middle Eastern oil. It seems now the big three auto makers in this country are behind producing and building more automobiles that will run on E-85 ethanol or gasoline. This is good far all of us, not only will ethanol cost less, it will make the United States much less dependent on that black gold that has been coming into the US from those middle eastern country's. And as an added bonus, the air we breathe will be much cleaner.

Ethanol in itself is not new, E15 and on a small scale E85 have been around for some years. The production was not at a point where auto makers got to excited about it, and as a result only a token amount of vehicles were produced that would burn the E85 ethanol, although most automobiles could and still today burn the E15 ethanol. The E15 and the E85 is the percent of ethanol that is added to gasoline to make the product. Ethanol can be made from several different sources, in this country most of our ethanol at this time is made from corn. In the future other products will be used in the making of ethanol that should also help get the cost down for all Americans. GM has said the cost to convert automobiles that were not already flex fuel to be some where around $500.

American companies are starting to produce more ethanol. This will help get more cars rolling off the assembly line, and get some of those big gas guzzlers off the road. Toyota is another company that seems to have a lot of interest in the flex fuel vehicles. They seem to be working very hard to catch up. Things will not happen over night, it will take some time to change the thinking of some of our politicians and get them behind ethanol and flex fuel vehicles. Once the ball gets rolling things can only get better for all of us.

There is another fuel out there for the folks who burn diesel. It's called BIODIESEL. This product is a combination of animal fats and diesel fuel. Again like the ethanol product it contains a small amount of diesel and a large amount of the animal fats. This product can and is being made by some people to burn in their own vehicles, making the fuel from byproducts of oil from many of their local restaurants. Most automobiles need a conversion kit, but the high mileage they receive per gallon is worth the investment. As far as places across the country that sell Biodiesel, there are only a few at this time, but they are gaining every day. Watch for this product to become more popular and thus increasingly available in the future as things get rolling. I guess the high price of fuel has helped in some way. Only time will tell.

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Article keywords: biodiesel, flex fuel, flex fuel vehicle, flexible fuel vehicle

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