Argumentative Essay: Could Ethanol Be The Future?

Making this switch would greatly lessen our dependence on imported oil, in addition to bolstering national security and reducing our trade deficit. Other benefits of biodiesel include a boost to the U.S.

Although e85 seems to be a great way to replace fuel there is a drawback, it's made from a crop or in other words a source of food. So the real question definitely is do we produce fuel for ourselves or feed the starving people of the world? As of right now nearly “...58 percent of the U.S. corn crop was used for feed. The remaining U.S. crop was split between exports (25 percent) and food, seed or industrial uses such as ethanol production (17 percent)” (Soyatech 1). So it's really how the consumer views it because in terms of food corn is at only 25% and 58% for cattle.

The advantages to using ethanol are is it is better on your car than straight gasoline is. It is also good for the economy because it helps farmers get rid of unwanted corn which makes farmers more money. It can also reduce air emissions 18% to 25% compared to straight gasoline.

Gasoline is liquid magic stored with 10 times the amount of energy as 1 pound of TNT. (“Why are we..”Video 3) I think that gasoline is the best source for our environment because we already are so used to it, it gives us the most energy per mile, and is an efficient way to store and generate energy. If the idea of leaving gasoline alone isn’t up for discussion, then maybe the topic of veganism/vegetarianism is, because it is also a good way to help our environment.

Biofuels are better than traditional fuels because they decrease the national dependency on foreign fuel. The Minnesota biofuel association provides the article “ETHANOL AND REDUCING FOREIGN OIL DEPENDENCY” expressing how the dependency of fuels decrease due to biofuels. “ethanol has helped America lessen its dependency on foreign oil. In fact, increased production of renewable fuels such as ethanol were key components of the Energy”(1). Biofuel contains materials that are found locally. Therefore, there would be no need to find fuels in foreign places. There would be no need to go underground or under the sea to find fuels. It would also decrease the dangers many people put themselves through in order to find the fuel. Also the article “what

The composition may pose a problem, but the components are also valuable in that they are natural, renewable resources. Using natural resources instead of oil would lower the US’s dependence on foreign oil. By lowering our oil intake from other countries, the US can reduce military spending that is directed at maintaining oil supplies, and instead spend this money on other costs for internal matters. In addition, most infrastructure is already formed to adapt to this ethanol. Most cars on the road in the US are Fuel Flex capable, so it would pose no needed change. Also, around the country there are about 2000 E85 spots available at gas stations. Overall, its energy output is 2 to 36 times the energy required to produce it. With more energy output, there is less fuel needed to be created (using less resources) and consumers will be able to pay less at the pump and instead use it for other expenses. Most notable, is the fact that using ethanol reduces 85-94% of emissions compared to oil. Reducing emissions will in turn lower the greenhouse effect, and lessen global warming effects (GreenTheFuture). In general, this matter is low costing or free. Municipal solid waste, which can be used, can even be subsidized to take, since normally it would have to be paid for for its disposal in a landfill. By using non edible fuel crops and municipal solid waste, consumer prices for groceries will not be driven upward, unlike corn, which uses farmland that otherwise would have been used for food production. Thus, corn drives up the price of food (Christian, Jan. 5, 2015). While opponents argue that it would require vast farming operations, meaning clearcutting in some cases, acquisition of

As time progresses, the use of ethanol in fueling our planet is vastly increasing. The U.S. Department of Energy explained the strong presence of ethanol in saying, “The use of ethanol is widespread, and approximately 97% of gasoline in the U.S. contains some ethanol.” (U.S. Department of Energy, 2016) But the hang up in this is noticing that only 10% of the ethanol is actually utilized, while the other 90% is gasoline. So, the question begs, can we slowly increase this ratio in favor of ethanol? The U.S. Department of Energy suggests the use of Flex-Fuel as an option. Flex Fuel is a higher use of ethanol percentages that normally seen in fuel usage. The Economic pushback is that ethanol yields 27% less energy than full-on gasoline usage. In

The United States is the world’s largest producer of ethanol fuel, producing over 60% of the world’s ethanol in 2011, which correlates to the creation of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) in 2005. The RFS originated with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and was expanded and extended by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA). The RFS requires renewable fuel to be blended into transportation fuel more so every year until it is set to reach 36 billion gallons in 2022 (Renewable). The purpose of this has widely been seen as an effort to combat environmental damage such as climate change and oil spills in addition to being a political move to be independent in creating our means of energy production. Currently, ethanol is societally regarded as an environmentally friendly fuel, being that it is produced from plant material through a series of chemical reactions. One of the most controversial issues relating to ethanol is the "net energy" of ethanol production. In sum, more energy is used to grow and process raw material into ethanol than is can be released by the ethanol itself. The agricultural practices that are necessary to produce the biomaterials that are converted to ethanol include planting, fertilization, tilling, watering, and harvesting, while processing the biomaterials involve transportation, fermentation, and distillation (Energy). While these processes require more energy than is able to be harvested from the resulted ethanol, and thus ethanol fuel is

The use of ethanol as an alternative fuel for gasoline has attracted considerable interest, mostly in the US (corn-based ethanol), Brazil (sugar cane-based ethanol); and Sweden as E85 (15% gasoline-85% ethanol) has been commercially used for a couple of decades [129]. Ethanol is also used as a drop–in fuel up to 10% in gasoline (E10) in a number of markets such as Austral-ia [96]. There are a number of advantages of blending ethanol in gasoline: (1)

Since few people have flex-fuel cars, only 2,250 service stations in the U.S. (excluding private stations) have ethanol pumps, out of a total of about 176,000 stations. It is simply not profitable for more gas stations to carry this fuel. On the other hand, the government wants to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources and, therefore, wants to

In 2010 the production of biofuels which provide 2.7% of fuels for transportation in the world reached 105 billion liters (Worldwatch Institute, 2011). The United States and Brazil were the largest producers of ethanol production with up to 90% of the global total output in 2010, and the

The first pro is that stock of Bio-Ethanol is not endless unlike the fossil fuel stock. In a couple of hundred years or even earlier the world will run out of fossil fuels, there will be nothing left for the upcoming generations on this planet. Therefore the invention of bio-ethanol and other biofuels comes as a great relief. Because we humans now have the control of amount of fuel available. This human control will make that the prices of petrol will not rise through the roof in a couple of years because of the scarcity of fossil fuels. We humans can plant to crops for the fuel and everyone will have access and there will be enough for everyone’s use. Bio-ethanol prices can therefore stay relatively stable and we can control it ourselves. We don´t

Demand for gasoline has been the driving force in utilization and depletion of crude petroleum, which is a non-renewable resource. In recent years, tendencies have just begun to, at times, favor alternative fuels to power autos. Many possible alternative fuels exist, certainly not without their drawbacks. These alternatives include, but are not limited to, alcohols, gasohols, and both liquefied and gaseous natural gas, as well as hydrogen. As mentioned above, drawbacks do exist; the chief drawbacks being cost of adaption implementation, engineering, and cost of the fuels themselves. As stated by many a chairman of petroleum companies, alternative fuels have limited applications and too many economic disadvantages,

Recent legislation by the Congress of the United States has created a mandate for 5 billion gallons of renewable fuel (notably ethanol) to be consumed annually by 2015. In light of this recent push for alternative fuels, many different biomass solutions have been considered to meet the energy need for the 200 million cars on the road. While the most efficient bio-fuels are derived from palm oil and sugarcane, the Unites States has begun to focus on the more regional corn crops to produce new renewable fuels. This program appears to have great potential towards achieving a sustainable future devoid of foreign oil dependence, until the economic implications of large-scale ethanol

Biofuels such as Ethanol, Biodiesel, Biogas, Biokerosene, Butanol, Other bio-alcohols are being seen as cleaner forms of energy but ethanol and biodiesel however are increasingly