How It Works
Alcohol is one of the oldest forms of biomass technology. Traditionally we have generated alcohol for recreational consumption but it can be used to augment or completely replace liquid fuels such as gasoline. Older carborated vehicles may require modification to allow the use of alcohol as a fuel but some modern, fuel-injected vehicles support a multi-fuel capability which allows the direct replacement of gasoline with alcohol fuels. Older racing vehicles were originally alcohol fueled for improved performance.
Alcohol is a less vigorous fuel than gasoline and in cold climates starting an alcohol fueled vehicle can be challenging. As a benefit in cold climates alcohol fueled vehicles do not suffer from frozen fuel lines as any water in the fuel system will not freeze due to the alcohol fuel. Due to the fact that alcohol is a less vigorous fuel than gasoline there is a lower fire and explosion hazard when using it.
Renewable Resources: - All biomass technologies use renewable resources and in many cases use byproducts from other industrial processes (i.e. sawdust, manure, cooking oil, etc). This means that the raw materials may be inexpensive or in some cases you might even be paid to remove the waste material.
Unfamiliar Technologies: - The largest strike against many of the biomass technologies is lack of public education about them. Other than wood heating, other biomass technologies are almost unknown to the general public. This is slowly changing, but anyone who is trying to implement any of these will face the challange of educating building inspectors and other beaureaucrats before they can get permits.
The best known local commercial supplier of alcohol fuels is Mohawk's service stations which provide a gasoline-alcohol mixture which is promoted as a cleaner burning fuel. Most automobiles will burn this without any modification to the automobile. The only drawback to using this fuel mixture is its tendency to dissolve all of the junk and corrosion in the fuel tank and dissolve it into the fuel which then clogs up the fuel filters. When you switch to a gasohol mix, carry a couple of spare fuel filters, change as required.