Science Forums 2

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by modest

I couldn't agree more. This is why I brought up Brazil. They saw the problem in the 70's and decided to do something about it. Now they are so very much better off for it.

Once again we see the problem today - but are we going to do something about it? It looks like we're not. It's going to be another duct tape solution with no real improvement. So discouraging.

-modest

the most puzzling aspect of this was the reasons we didn't start moving in the direction of something other than gasoline. At the time methane was very cheap and often burnt off as waste from oil wells and other places. Wells were drilled and capped waiting for the prices to go up. methane was judged to dangerous to use because it had to be compressed. this simply wasn't true but it was what most people thought. Methane was used in fleet vehicles with a very good safety record. It was assumed and often confirmed by people who should have known better than methane was too explosive and a leak would be disastrous. Like gasoline isn't. methane is much safer than gasoline, methane rises quickly and leaves the area of a leak gas pools and it's vapors travel across the ground almost like a liquid. It was also thought the government would have a difficult time taxing methane since you could fill your own tank from your home gas mains with a small compressor. (like the government couldn't figured a way) Mostly the gas companies didn't want to compete with an energy source that could be home based and by pass their network of gas stations. methane not only polluted less it also made engines last much longer. It was a great fuel with no development at all and could be used in cars with almost no modifications other than carburetor. Think of how methane powered cars could have been developed if the same amount of money had been invested in methane instead of gasoline. Methane started out far superior to gasoline, it didn't need to be refined or changed for use as motor fuel, it staggers the imagination to think where we might be with methane. At the very least we would be used to handling a gas instead of liquid when we want to go to hydrogen. Again the cars companies and oil companies did everything they could to kill the idea and it died. Now we are faced with cars that cannot run on anything but gasoline with out extreme modifications that would make the cars illegal to modify. we are stuck in a situation that almost completely prevents any one from modifying their vehicles in way, so much for the home based tinkerer. I really don't like conspiracy theories but in this case I think there really was a concerted effort to stop the development of methane as a motor fuel for the masses.