Another Way to Get High on Ethanol

High fuel costs are sending aircraft manufacturers and airlines scurrying to find ways to run their aircraft on cheaper fuels. Brazilian manufacturer of crop-dusters, Neiva, is producing an ethanol-powered crop-duster, and has sold 50 of the grog-powered 'dusters so far.

Embraer subsidiary Neiva is set to deliver the latest Ipanema agricultural aircraft to a Brazilian customer this month.

The low-wing Ipanema entered service in 1973 and 30 years later Embraer introduced an ethanol-fuelled version. It continues to manufacture around two aircraft a month for the Latin American market - mainly Brazil.

"We have sold 50 new ethanol Ipanemas to date and more than 200 $40,000 ethanol conversion kits [manufactured by Textron Lycoming] as this fuel is around 40% cheaper to purchase in Brazil than traditional avgas," says Embraer.___Source__via__BiofuelsDigest

Peak oil doomseekers have long predicted that high prices of petroleum fuels will spell the end of aviation, large-scale transport, and high yield agriculture. The problem with these dime-a-dozen, dimwitted prophecies of doom, is that humans have been reacting to adversity for over a hundred thousand years.

The fact that humans can live and prosper in a wider range of habitats than any other large animal, suggests that the unsightly knot residing between human shoulders has a function other than consuming food and water, or making silly and irrelevant noises.

Ultimately, liquid bio-energy will be of much better quality than ethanol, and will work better within existing engine systems, storage systems, and pipeline systems, than does ethanol. Between now and then, expect ethanol from cane, beets, sorghum, and bio-engineered maize to merge with cellulosic ethanol/butanol to provide a bridge to better bio-energy--within the next 10 years.