
r/peakoil

E20 is ruining our cars, but the ground reality of ethanol factories is straight up dystopian.
We already know the whole E20 story and how this forced blend is eating our engines and killing our mileage. But the ground reality of how this ethanol is actually being made truly exposes the sheer hypocrisy of forcing it down on us by justifying it in the name of environment protection.
Look at the sheer amount of pollution these plants are dumping. They are poisoning the groundwater and destroying the local environment. And who actually profits from this? Gadkari, his family’s agro firms, and the massive sugar lobby. Their revenues have magically shot up since this mandate started, while we pay ₹100+ for fuel that actively destroys our own vehicles.
What blows my mind is how blatantly this is happening in broad daylight. They aren't even trying to hide the conflict of interest anymore. Why is there absolutely zero protest spirit left in us? We just quietly accept getting robbed at the fuel pump, having our cars ruined, and watching the environment get trashed so a specific political nexus can print money.
P.S. - This post was deleted within seconds of posting from the other car subreddit.
Is ethanol blending really a game changer ?
Hey Rediators-
Lately, there's been a ton of talk about blending ethanol into petrol and diesel. The government says it's a game-changer with minimal impact on car performance, according to new research. But a lot of car makers are saying their vehicles, right down to the smallest parts, aren't built for ethanol mixes.
What do you all think about this?
Can nuclear make oil products?
I have a question about Generation IV breeder reactors, and I should note upfront that I'm not a STEM person—so I may be missing something obvious.
My thought is this: couldn't you connect a large breeder iv reactor to a mini desalination plant, use the water output for electrolysis to produce hydrogen, and then combine that hydrogen with captured CO₂ from the exhaust streams of steel mills, coal plants, or other industrial facilities? Note if this ever became unviable you could also do direct carbon capture from the atmosphere but at a currently untenable cost per barrel. Then use the “Fischer–Tropsch”process to synthesize sulfur-free liquid hydrocarbons that function as crude oil or refined fuels?
Suppose the entire system—reactor, desalination, electrolysis, carbon capture, and Fischer–Tropsch facilities—costs around $50 billion upfront and is amortized over 30 years. If the carbon feedstock is effectively free because it's captured waste emissions, and the reactor is producing something on the order of 10 GW of power, it seems like the break-even production cost might end up somewhere around $40–50 per barrel, depending on your financing cost, red tape and subsidies. Note you can also use the excess freshwater and oxygen to subsidize the cost per barrel.
My question is: what am I missing?
This seems almost too good to be true. You’re telling me that one could produce $40 carbon neutral break even oil for all of humanity for the next millennium?
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