Cody, Those number came from a study I read in Popular Mechanics sometime last year. And you are right, I misquoted that. It should have been "the cost of making a gallon of bio-fuel is apporoximatley the same as a gallon and a half of regular diesel fuel".
You have to remember that you are using fuel in the equipment (tractors and stuff) to grow and harvest the corn or whatever you are going to use. Then there is also the fuel you are going to use to process it. Even if you are gong to use electric equipment, that is still energy being used. That energy has to be made somehow, thus costing someone somewhere money.
I am not completley against "alternative" fuels. However, for a something that is not petroleum based to make sense, it needs to meet three requirements:
The total process needs to cost less than making gasoline or diesel
It needs to have as much or more volatility than gas or diesel (otherwise you end up using more to create the same amount of power or go the same distnace as you would with a petroleum based fuel)
The end user cost must be less than current gas or diesel prices (without subsidies from the government - because that is money out of our pocket too)
Sure I could go to a fast food place and get their old grease and make bio-diesel cheap, but that is cheap for me. It all had to be paid for someone else, so the overall cost is very high. So, my cost would be a phony cost, not a real cost.
So, back on the subject of the thread.. I usually run 89 octane (mid-grade) in my Speedy.
Soren
