Do you think that ethanol is a viable fuel source for your country?
Ethanol
Ethanol, also known as grain alcohol, is ethyl alcohol (C2H5OH).It is colourless and flammable, and found in alcoholic drinks. It was probably first separated out by Persian alchemists. Ethanol can be produced by fermentation and then distilled and purified, or made from petroleum feedstocks using a catalyst, which is cheaper.
Ethanol can be used on its own to power vehicles. It is often mixed with gasoline when being used as a fuel, when may then be called gasohol (10% ethanol/90% gasoline). In the USA this particular mix is known as E10. Before it can be blended with gasoline, ethanol has to go through extra purification steps. One advantage is that it is renewable when derived from crops (sugar or starch or grains) or a variety of food or industrial wastes.
Vehicles without modification can run on mixtures including up to 30% ethanol, though changes to the compression ratio or spark timing may be beneficial. Modifications to some rubber and plastic materials are required for vehicles running on ethanol, plus larger carburetor jets and a cold starting system. Some modern cars are being built that can use a mix including up to 85% ethanol without modification. Some can automatically detect what kind of fuel they are receiving and adjust themselves.
In the mid-1980s, Brazil was mass-producing ethanol for motor vehicles from its sugar-cane, and the majority of vehicles ran on it. It fell out of favour as oil prices fell, however. Now production has resumed, of cars running on a mix of ethanol and regular fuel.
In the USA, use of ethanol was promoted and subsidised after the Arab oil embargo of 1973. The Energy Tax Act of 1978 included an excise tax exemption for biofuels, and loans for building ethanol plants were guaranteed. Minnesota only allows E10 to be sold. Other blends include E5, E7 and E85 (15% gasoline and 85% ethanol). In 2002, the U.S. used as fuel an amount of ethanol equal to 1.13 billion US gallons of gasoline; less than 1% of the total fuel used that year.
If the renewable raw materials that ethanol is made of were left to decompose, they would produce carbon dioxide and water. As combustion of ethanol produces the same carbon dioxide and water, it is said to produce no net carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas.
If ethanol is grown from crops, then either a great deal of extra land would need to be devoted to it, or it would be possible to use some crop waste. Some of the crop waste is currently used to fuel power plants or as animal feed or fertilizers, however, so this would have to be replaced with something else.
No fuel is viable if the amount of energy used to produce it exceeds the energy contains. In the case of ethanol, this includes fertilizing, farming, harvesting, transport, fermentation, distillation, and distribution, plus energy capital costs invested in constructing buildings and equipment. It is very difficult to get agreement on this, and it will depend on geography and climate. If a non-viable fuel were used, then additional energy would have to be used from other sources to make up the difference. It is viable in Brazil using sugar cane residues. It is also viable where there is plenty of hydropower. It is not clear whether it is viable in the USA. Currently most studies suggest that it is not, but further research and development may change this.
Ethanol is less flammable than gasoline. Unlike gasoline, which floats on water, ethanol fires can be extinguished using water hoses. Burning pure ethanol is harder to see, however.
Ethanol produces fewer pollutants such as carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, but there are claims that it may produce more nitrogen oxides and other components of smog than gasoline alone. Gasoline often has additives to improve its octane rating. One such additive is MTBE; ethanol would replace this. It would increase the amount of evaporative emissions, but these are less harmful than MTBE, lead or benzene. Critics of ethanol say that cheaper additives could be used in its stead. Actions such as the burning of sugarcane fields just before harvest produce pollution which has to be included in the equation, but this practice is not universal and is declining. Other effects on the environment will depend on how the biomass is produced. Ethanol is free of sulphur dioxide.
The economic arguments for ethanol need to be considered too, as the U.S. Senate realizes. Subsidies can complicate the issue, as can demand for the same crops, or other uses of the land.
Methanol has also been considered as a fuel, but it is usually obtained only from petroleum or natural gas, so it is not as renewable. Russia uses methanol from eucalyptus. Methanol is toxic, and more flammable than gasoline or ethanol.
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