High gas prices? here's a real answer!

Subject: A real, viable answer to the increasing price of petroleum and gasoline.

Everyone complains about the high price of gasoline, but no one ever seems to do anything about it.

How high does gasoline have to get before people demand a viable alternative?

I’m a chemical engineer with experience in the oil industry who has researched alternative fuels including hydrogen for several years. I have a truly good set of answers, but seemingly, no one wants to hear about them. I have compiled those answers into a small book, A Convenient Solution - How Americans Can Solve the Energy Crisis and Reduce Global Warming in Just Ten Years, about to be published. (Around the end of the year) I’m tired of being patronized by assistants of politicians, think tanks, energy foundations, environmental organizations and research groups. Now I’m taking my story directly to the public via the Internet. I'm concentrating on talk radio shows first because they seem most eager to listen. In April of Last year I was interviewed on the Bud Hedinger talk radio show in Orlando FL and received several interested responses. This prompted me to prepare my book for publication and plan for promotion.

There is a great deal of good information on alternative fuels available for anyone who will take the time to look for it.

Methanol has been around for years and is used in race cars and some fleets so it is no stranger to powering vehicles. It is currently being blended with 15% gasoline to create M85 fuel.

Ethanol has been added to gasoline up to 10% for years and is being blended with 15% gasoline to make E85 fuel which is also being used in some fleets. Many new ethanol plants are now under design and construction.

Biodiesel in many forms has been used in diesel engines and could completely replace petro-diesel if it became available in sufficient quantities.

And several other promising newcomers:

Butanol is another alcohol that has been manufactured by processes and from raw materials similar to those used for ethanol and methanol. Used as a solvent for many years, it is a longer carbon chain alcohol with physical properties so close to gasoline it can be used in existing gasoline engines.

DMF or 2,5-dimethylfuran is another new fuel possibility. Made from sugar, its fuel properties and energy content are much closer to gasoline than those of ethanol. Like butanol, it can be used in existing gasoline engines.

With the price of gasoline and diesel skyrocketing, these fuels are becoming very price competitive. In addition, these fuels produce much less pollution and add no net carbon dioxide to the atmosphere when produced from renewable sources such as agricultural products and waste material.

Why is all the popular research being directed at hydrogen when these fuels have so many advantages over it? Could it be that those in power don’t want a viable alternative to petroleum? Are the oil companies protecting their profits by supporting research that can’t produce a viable system in the foreseeable future?

The complete energy system described in my book provides many advantages over petroleum fuels and hydrogen. Hydrogen seems to get most of the hype with ethanol a distant second. Is that possibly because hydrogen is the most expensive fuel, requires huge infrastructure costs, and will take the longest time to reach the market while ethanol is a huge agriculturally based product? In truth, ethanol could be used in a standard blend with methanol to satisfy agricultural interests and produce an end product that is quite a bit cheaper.

Use of a microturbine generator to power a Tridrid vehicle with battery power enough to go sixty or more miles on a single charge could be able to make use of virtually any liquid fuel from methanol to diesel. This vehicle would be able to use any of the bio-fuels as well as petro-fuels. This is the area of research I believe would provide the best answers for the future of transportation.

The following advantages of bio-fuel are outlined in my book:

Ethanol blended with methanol would be the least expensive fuel by any measure if its components were made by the processes I describe. That includes research and development, manufacture, distribution and power system improvements.

It would be environmentally safer than gasoline and make no net gain of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. That should make the environmentalists very happy.

It could use the current infrastructure used for petroleum fuels with very minor and inexpensive changes.

It would not require the huge outlay for development and creation of the expensive infrastructure that would be required for hydrogen.

Manufactured here in the US, bio-fuels would retain those billions now going to the Arab world and supporting terrorism. This would provide many new, well-paying jobs right here and be a huge boost to our economy.

Many bio-fuels could be used in existing vehicles, tools and other engines with just a few inexpensive modifications. Some would require no changes at all.

It requires relatively cheap, existing, proven technologies that could be used for the present and the future for manufacture, distribution and storage as well as end use.

First generation vehicles could be available almost immediately by modifying existing vehicles. Completely new, second generation vehicles, built from the ground up could be on the streets within just five or ten years.

Bio-fuel pumps at filling stations would appear incrementally just as diesel pumps have over the last five or ten years.

Cost of developing and manufacturing proposed turbine powered tribrid vehicles will be relatively low as many components are already manufactured.

Conversion to bio-fuel would quickly reduce our dependence on imported oil and churn all that money back into our own economy instead of supporting sheikdoms and dictators.

Environmentalists would love it as it would substantially lower pollution and stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

It’s a proven technology already being used in several places. Why won’t our politicians or the media even mention it? Think about it!

In comparison to the highly touted hydrogen fuel cell system, bio-fuel wins hands down in every department!

Howard Johnson

For more about "A Convenient Solution" - - -

Click here for a more in-depth overview of the book.

Click here to view a excerpts from, the book.

Click here to read about a lecture on the same subject.

To order a copy of the book (e-book copy is free) email me at hobarb@yahoo.com

For more about alernative fuels, go to the following websites:

CLICK to go to EIN Publishing, News covering Energy, Transportation and Environmental Industries”

CLICK to go to EERE Alternative fuels website”

CLICK to go to The Alternative-fuel Vehicle Directory”

To contact author, Howard Johnson Click Here!