ethanol and Florence
Geno1234
Hurricane.
But as Dink and Bush says, things never could be better.
Corn corn corn! We all want CORN.
Protests as ethanol leaves US boats dead in the water
By David Usborne in New York
Published: 05 September 2006
Car drivers in the United States do not usually notice when they fill their
tanks with petrol mixed with 10 per cent ethanol, much of it manufactured
from home-grown corn. If they did, few would complain. The blending process
increases the fuel supply, helps to restrain prices, and it is kind to the
environment.
There is an anti-ethanol rebellion brewing, however, but it is not happening
on America's highways. The rumbles of protest are being heard instead on
rivers, lakes and along its shores, as boat owners discover that ethanol can
sometimes be ruinous to their beloved yachts and cruisers.
As more marinas follow the national trend by offering only fuels with the 10
per cent ethanol blend, boat owners find they have no choice but to buy it,
even as evidence accumulates that ethanol, benign though it is to the
atmosphere, can leave boats dead in the water.
The problems were detailed in a report published by the Boat Owners
Association of the United States, or Boat US. They are particularly
worrisome for people with older boats fitted with fibreglass fuel tanks.
Introduce ethanol to them, and a chemical reaction produces a black muck.
The muck and marine engines do not mix well.
Complaints are coming in from disgruntled captains from East Coast harbours
to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean - that boats are mysteriously puttering to a
standstill and the suspected cause in each case is ethanol.
"The engine damage appears to be a tar-like substance - possibly from the
chemical reaction between the resin and ethanol - causing hard black
deposits that damage intake valves and pushrods, destroying the engine,"
Boat US wrote. For some owners this may mean their engines are wrecked.
Others are looking for ways to cut out their fibreglass tanks and replace
them with aluminium ones.
One man who knows all about the ethanol blight is Ale Tolentino, who
captains a Dolphin tour boat in Hawaii. "It just melted things that was in
the tank that's been in the boat since it's been built, sent it right
through the fuel lines and the fuel lines were melting - and sending stuff
in liquid form right through the engine and into the injectors," he said.
"It came down to the ethanol doing the damage, it just killed us."
Another problem is that ethanol attracts water. In a car, where the tank and
fuel lines are sealed, water is not an issue, but that is hardly the case
when you are water-born, particularly if your boat sits for weeks at a time
not being used.
The rush to introduce ethanol has been unstoppable. It is a boon for
farmers, who have found an important new market for their corn, and is seen
as an important step to mitigating, if only slightly, the country's
dependency on foreign oil supplies. But boaters think that they have been
ignored in the process.
"No options - that was our big problem, no options," said Mr Tolentino.
"It would have been nice if somebody did some sort of study before they just
said it's done."
Car drivers in the United States do not usually notice when they fill their
tanks with petrol mixed with 10 per cent ethanol, much of it manufactured
from home-grown corn. If they did, few would complain. The blending process
increases the fuel supply, helps to restrain prices, and it is kind to the
environment.
There is an anti-ethanol rebellion brewing, however, but it is not happening
on America's highways. The rumbles of protest are being heard instead on
rivers, lakes and along its shores, as boat owners discover that ethanol can
sometimes be ruinous to their beloved yachts and cruisers.
As more marinas follow the national trend by offering only fuels with the 10
per cent ethanol blend, boat owners find they have no choice but to buy it,
even as evidence accumulates that ethanol, benign though it is to the
atmosphere, can leave boats dead in the water.
The problems were detailed in a report published by the Boat Owners
Association of the United States, or Boat US. They are particularly
worrisome for people with older boats fitted with fibreglass fuel tanks.
Introduce ethanol to them, and a chemical reaction produces a black muck.
The muck and marine engines do not mix well.
Complaints are coming in from disgruntled captains from East Coast harbours
to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean - that boats are mysteriously puttering to a
standstill and the suspected cause in each case is ethanol.
"The engine damage appears to be a tar-like substance - possibly from the
chemical reaction between the resin and ethanol - causing hard black
deposits that damage intake valves and pushrods, destroying the engine,"
Boat US wrote. For some owners this may mean their engines are wrecked.
Others are looking for ways to cut out their fibreglass tanks and replace
them with aluminium ones.