lauantai 28. toukokuuta 2011

Businesweek:Yhdysvalloissa etanolibensaa käyttävät autot alkavat hajota




Businesweek

Etanolibensan vaarattomuuden perusteena on täällä käytetty sitä, että Yhdysvalloissa sitä on käytetty jo kauan ilman ongelmia. Nyt näyttäisi, että ei:


"GOT A SPARE $1,000?
Last July was bad enough for motorists on a budget—gasoline prices had shot up to more than $4 a gallon. But for some the pain in the pocketbook was about to get worse. At City Garage in Euless, Tex., for example, the first of numerous future customers brought in an automobile whose fuel pump was shot. A quick diagnosis determined that that particular car had close to 18% ethanol in the fuel. For that unlucky owner, the repairs came to nearly $900. The ethanol fun was just beginning.

City Garage manager Eric Greathouse has found that adding ethanol to the nation's gasoline supply may be a foolish government mandate, but it has an upside he'd rather not deal with. It's supplying his shop with a slow but steady stream of customers whose plastic fuel intakes have been dissolved by the blending of ethanol into our gasoline, or their fuel pumps destroyed. The average cost of repairs is just shy of $1,000"