Many gasoline cars can be retrofit to run on ethanol. In the Midwest you will find more corn than you can ever use to make said ethanol.
Comment on Survive the zombie apocalypse
Adalast@lemmy.world 11 months agoHe’s right, unless you study up on making biodiesel. Then you have the upper hand in the argument, as a diesel Jeep can be run on biodiesel. Rendering those fatty zombie corpses to fuel should be a functional disposal method.
Chriswild@lemmy.world 11 months ago
ikapoz@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Not a terrible play, but it has a BIG downside you might not be considering.
99.99% of the corn grown first world, and a lot of other food crops, are sterile hybrid varieties that don’t readily reseed themselves (Monsanto and company HATE when farmers don’t have to buy seed every year).
Once there is no more harvesting or maintenance on stockpile equipment, that supply will dwindle faster than you might expect.
Chriswild@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Their have been instances of gmo corn cross breeding with heirloom corn and Monsanto suing the farmers for patent infringement.
You can use the stores for ages and since you’re not eating it you can use rotten corn. Then it’s just a matter of time for a cross to form naturally.
Adalast@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Fuck corn. It is patently one of the worst feedstocks for ethanol. The only reason you hear so much of it is because there is so much money wrapped up in it already and it is a way to use up excess stock. No, switchgrass is the answer. Hearty, more biomass per km² than just about any other crop, has high cellulose content (which is what gets turned into ethanol), and can be cultivated just about anywhere on the continent with little maintenance or involvement. You could probably get away with planting a few fields in pockets around a stronghold which could be checked on a couple of times a week and harvested for an extended period, then you just have to process it as usual. It is even relatively short and dense, so zombies would struggle to hide in it and it would act as a natural barrier to slow the advance of both Zs and any nairdowells that would seek to assault you. Fuel source and defensive emplacement in one.
Exusia@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That and after a while gasoline expires even in the tank of a car. After Lake a few months he would have to be making his own fuel anyway, because whatever gets siphoned can’t be used.