Thanks for the link, IFLYSKY5, and the pics.
To the topic, I tend to oppose throwing out the baby with the bath water. There is no doubt that 100LL is pretty much universally disliked because it contains lead. I don't care for petroleum-based fuels for two main reasons: they are relatively dirty, and they are randomly found. I liken it to cavemen dragging a limb through a stinking bog and setting it on fire. I think it's time we moved beyond the hunter-gatherer stage.
When I made the first pure biofuel flight across the US, I burned straight N-butanol. It is more viscous than gasoline, has excellent lubricity, burns similarly, can fuel existing turbines, diesels, and gasoline engines, and unlike ethanol, is not corrosive to natural materials (rubber, paper) or aluminum. It actually does a really good job of protecting the old aviation engines without lead. On the downside, it is a little cold-blooded and needed a gasoline priming system to start in November. Of course, it can be engineered with an accelerant to overcome that.
The thing I really like about an alcohol molecule is that it can be engineered in a number of ways, and not just by using yeast or bacteria. You need a suitable and sufficient hydrocarbon feedstock. That's where my infrastructure development advance comes in; you can produce enormous amounts of algae in desert climates relatively close to the ocean from hyper-saline water, which is the byproduct of desalination. Unlimited fresh water, industrial and table salt, and an entirely new feedstock for our petrochemical industry that can be manufactured into ALL related products, plus fuel farming, without the need for refineries and with a positive impact on existing food sources. The fuel works in existing engines and can be transported in existing pipelines, unlike ethanol. Also, you are locking even more CO2 than you are releasing while eliminating the release of CO2 from ancient sequestered sources.
Best of all, we identified a permanent and renewable replacement for petroleum, so we eliminate the geo-political ramifications of our current hunter-gatherer fuel economy.
See LookLocal.org. Now that I'm back on my feet, the site will soon see a resurgence.
