Debunking Dick's myths
In response to Dick Little’s column in Tuesday’s paper, I have to disagree with him.
Gasoline doesn’t burn cleaner when it burns hotter, this may be the case for your wood stove, but not for gas.
Remember in the 70’s when cars started loosing power to comply with emissions and get better mileage?
I don’t I wasn’t born, but right around 1973 American car companies started lowering compression ratios in their engines. By lowering the compression ratio, you lower the burning temp while allowing lower octane fuels, and lowering emissions.
See my octane blog for more on that, but higher octane fuels burn at a higher temperature.
Anyway a compression ratio is the ratio of the combustion chamber when the piston is at top dead center versus bottom dead center.
By compressing air, you heat it, that is a law of physics, not gas burns hotter therefore cleaner.
This also brings me to my next point. Pistons don’t make any revolutions per minute.
Pistons travel in a linear direction, the connecting rods in an engine translate that motion to rotational motion at the crankshaft which is where revolutions per minute (RPM) is measured.
Think of it as a hand drill, or bbq spit. Your arm doesn’t rotate around does it? It thrusts back and forth, as does your car’s pistons. That is unless you drive a Mazda RX7, which is another blog.
Alcohol doesn’t carry the same potential British Thermal Unit (BTU) potential. It doesn’t burn as hot and is less efficient than gasoline.
Also saying that every car could see a 2 mpg increase by the elimination of alcohol is a fallacy.
Little drives a 30 mpg car. If you drive a 15 mpg car you’d only get 1 mpg better than before, assuming you’d reap the same energy efficiency that Little claims.
For other comments on his collumn visit
http://www.topix.net/forum/source/paradise-post/TB5GV1BT098VIVSC2