Can Wal-Mart battle Big Oil?

[mustang84]

As much as I dislike Wal-Mart, if they do this...I may cut them some slack for a change.

Why Wal-Mart wants to sell ethanol

But Wal-Mart (Charts) is. The giant retailer is considering selling ethanol at the eight stations that it operates at Wal-Mart Stores and at about 380 more that it runs as part of its Sam's Clubs division.

It could also decide to sell ethanol in a partnership with Murphy Oil Corp. (Charts), which operates about 946 gas stations in Wal-Mart parking lots, and there's no reason why Wal-Mart couldn't sell E85 - which it calls "America's Fuel" - at the rest of its 3,000 U.S. stores.

"Our goal would be to make E-85 available across the U.S.," Rich Ezell, senior strategy manager of fuel at Wal-Mart, said recently.

Why does Wal-Mart want to get into the transportation fuel business?

Several reasons. First, selling ethanol could be a new profit center for Wal-Mart, since the retailing business is wide-open. It's also a way for the company to help its customers save money; the less money they pour into the tank, the more they have to spend at Wal-Mart.

Finally, Wal-Mart's interest in alternative fuels like ethanol comes as part of its sweeping efforts to adopt business practices that are better for the environment. To guide its efforts, Wal-Mart has organized more than a dozen "sustainable value networks" that are composed of suppliers, environmentalists, industry experts and government officials.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/08/news/compa...dex.htm?cnn=yes

[Guest YellowJacket894]

That's a good way to give Exxon a nice kick in the ass. I'll cut Wally-World a little bit of slack here.

[razoredge]

It seems to me they may have the financial power to get the ball rollin for E85 infastructure.

However we all still know there will be no savings. THe laws of supply and demand and capitolistic greed will still push the prices through the roof. If gas is 4.00 E85 will be 3.75...............when gas goes to 5.00 E85 will be 4.85. The word "savings" is nothing more than a dream in todays inflated and deregulated world. Local work and the bicycle is the only answer

[Guest buickman]

Don't forget E85 gets much lower MPG.

Buickman

[GPGuy]

Ok so much as I hate to admit it if Wal-Mart does this I will have to cut them a bit of slack as well as much as I despise their mangagement tactics.

[FAPTurbo]

Meh. Wal-Mart is desperately trying to get people to cut them slack and this is just another way.

Let them do it, but I just hope people realize that ethanol and petroleum should just be a stop-gap measure in our pursuit of a nuclear/hydrogen future.

[Newbiewar]

Don't forget E85 gets much lower MPG.

Buickman

189581[/snapback]

sure... the mileage ranges are much worse now... but with a renewable source... the fuel is cheaper, the fuel is of course renewable, and is inefficent only because it is an after thought of gasoline... if the engine was designed to run 100% ethonal... it would be much more fuel efficent let alone more powerful... it is more volitle as it is

[thegriffon]

More powerful yes, but ethanol doesn't have the energy-density of gasoline, so mileage and range will never be as good. However ethanol and bio-diesel are 100% guaranteed to replace gasoline at some point in the future, especially for people who like the sound and performance characteristics of an ICE, no matter how readily available fuel cells and hydrogen become.

[rkmdogs]

sure... the mileage ranges are much worse now... but with a renewable source... the fuel is cheaper, the fuel is of course renewable, and is inefficent only because it is an after thought of gasoline... if the engine was designed to run 100% ethonal... it would be much more fuel efficent let alone more powerful... it is more volitle as it is

189704[/snapback]

Newbiewar, I have one question. Where did you study your thermodynamics?

The instructor should be fired!

They already run ethanol 100% in Brazil. Yes there are design considerations

required because ethanol is a very corrosive fuel. VW had to chrome plate

their die-cast carburetors to make them work down there, without being eaten alive by that fuel!

There is a factor called latent energy, which all fuels have. It is the amount of

BTU's per pound of fuel that they contain, if they were 100% effectively

converted to all energy. Compared to gasoline, ethanol is considerably down

the scale, but it is looked on favorably, as you said because it is a renewable

resouce, and can be extracted from many products. Our choice of using corn

is a poor one, as the other uses of that product have a much higher priority,

especially in our food chain!

Brasil has done it right! They extract their ethanol from sugar cane stalks, where

the sugar has already been extracted, and the residual stalk is a former trash

product! That is why their ethanol is cheap. Their resource is a waste product.

The technology currently exists here and elsewhere around the world to extract

methanol from garbage. This is another fuel that can be and should be used!

Meanwhile we just throw our garbage in a trash heap, and hope that it doesn't

pollute our water, when we should be using the natural by-product of decomposition as a fuel resource!

Again, Japan is leading the way in this technology. WHY ????