The imeadiate issue is AVGAS for those engines requiring 100 octane. This
stuff may not be available much longer at any price since its prodiction
depends on a single producer of TEL. The EPA has also issued a proposed
rule making requiring removal of lead. The immeadiate future of 100LL is
looking grimmer by the day.

Lead free 100 octane is possible but not with crude oil as the feedstock.
Iso-Octane is the laboratory reference for the octane scale as it exhibits
exactly '100 octane'. What if you could produce large quantities of
Iso-Octane from biomass? There are some small groups trying to do exactly
that by genetically engineering microbes to either directly produce
Iso-Octane or a convienient precursor that can be refined into lead free 100
octane AVGAS.

This is economically reasonable since the total comsumption of 100 octane
AVGAS by those high-performance engines that require it a fraction of one
percent of all motor fuels. A small biofuel production facility might be
able to meet all of North America's 100 octane AVGAS needs. Those engines
not needing 100 octane can run aviation grade 92 octane which is essentially
100LL minus the lead.

None of this will bring back $1/gal AVGAS but it would be a 100% domestic
source not at the mercy of global oil prices. I hope these guys get a move
on since I've read predictions of 100LL's demise within 12 months.

Bill D



"Sliker" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 05 May 2008 16:52:18 -0500, Gig 601Xl Builder
wrote:

wrote:

And in Venezuala gasoline costs $0.15 a gallon...

Which is exactly the opposite of a tax the government refining it
themselves and selling it cheap. Probably worse for their economy in the
long run than what happens in Europe.

Think about what will happen when that idiot they have running the
country finally get ousted and the price goes back to market norms.

That'll never happen. The only way to get back to cheap oil is if we
took over the oil wells. And the fallout from doing that would be
major. Although there are a few countries that have a lot of oil that
need their asses kicked big time. That jerk down in Venezuala for one,
and those camel riding rag headed idiots in the middle east. The USA
is probably the most powerful nation in earth's history that doesn't
use it's power to the fullest by it's own choice. The British could
fall into that catagory in their past also. You think if someone in
this planet's past like Hitler, or fill in the blank, that had our
miltary, and nuclear arsenal would be putting up with todays oil
prices? Not on your life, and they'd probably control just about all
the oil on the planet. But we are the nice guys, so we pay through the
nose.