Etha-Not a Good Idea Essay

Switching from the expensive oil to alternative fuels has moved from a dream to reality. Today, there are dozens of alternatives to oil that are currently available us to be used. One alternative to oil that is being used more today is ethanol. Derived from plant materials, ethanol can be a cheaper, cleaner alternative to the gasoline that our vehicles run off. When going to gas pumps, one will notice that much of the gasoline is up to 10 percent of ethanol. According to our text, most ethanol in the U.S. is made from corn, yet ethanol can be made from any biomes-- including garbage. (Turk & Bensel, 2011)

Of course there are reasons why we have not converted to alcohol burning vehicles before.  Ethanol costs more per gallon than gasoline.  However, new technologies have the potential to produce ethanol at significantly smaller costs.   Methanol, a high-performance liquid fuel made from wood or coal, can be produced at prices comparable to the prices of gasoline and natural gas.  In addition, oil does not occur naturally in unlimited supply, and just in the past few years, gas prices have been increasing dramatically.  Those prices will not fall back down.  However, the introduction of an inexpensive alcohol-based fuel would provide an alternative means of power and give consumers more choices.

In the United States, ethanol is primarily used as a blending element in the production of gas and as an alternative fuel. More than 95% of the gasoline sold in the United States contains ethanol. Most of ethanol blending into U.S. motor gasoline occurs to meet the requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act (RFG Fuel) and the Renewable Fuel Standard set forth in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. (U.S Energy Information Administration)

Mankind has relied on non-renewable resources for thousands of years, and only recently has it started to take its toll on the environment. Chemists have been experimenting with different types of fuels and adding to gasoline to make it more efficient. This is when ethanol made its debut into the fuel industry, as an additive to gasoline. Ethanol is put into gas as a combatant against water, which can find its way into fuel tanks of vehicles. It reduces the effect that this water has on the health of the vehicle, and as a result increases gas mileage, and also increases the amount of complete combustion. Ethanol consumption has severe drawbacks pertaining to its effect on the environment. Production of ethanol increases the formation of

The higher price of ethanol in many areas is made worse by ethanol’s second disadvantage that it, regardless of the price you pay for it, contains less fuel efficient energy than gasoline. In short, this means cars won’t travel as far on a tank of gas, and most cars fuel economy will decrease by 20-30 percent. This is very

Ethanol is now found in most gasolines, except for the few and far between pumps that sell ethanol-free fuel. Ethanol acts as a “filler” in gasoline, because it is much cheaper than many gasoline components, however it comes at a price because ethanol infused gasoline procures about 33% less energy than ethanol free gasoline, dropping its competitiveness towards diesel even more. (Energy, 2015) Ethanol gasoline types include E10, E15, and E85. E10 represents gasoline with a 10% ethanol content, which is the norm now for most gasoline types, and what will mostly likely be in normal unleaded gasoline. E15, 15% ethanol, can only be used in flex-fuel or light duty cars because it produces not nearly enough power to run a large gasoline engine without major modifications. (Energy, 2015) E85, meaning that it is composed of 85% ethanol gasoline mixture (51-83% ethanol), and can only be used by special flex-fuel

At the dawn of the Industrial Era, many curative people imagined the future of humans and how we could advance in technology. But as we neared the future they imagined we reared off the line many times. We could have used ethyl, may cars in the early 1900's had engines that used both gasoline and ethyl. The United States of America has been using gasoline for over 100 years and has now as a country we need to change to a new source, sooner or later.

(Benefits,2012) This means that gas powered cars are still the most viable and economically efficient option. According to Smartycents.com, “Most electric cars can’t travel more than 150 miles at a time, and they can take up to 8 hours to recharge. Gasoline vehicles can have a range of 400 miles or more, and they can be refueled in only a few minutes.”

Despite a relatively recent downturn in popularity, NASCAR, standing for the Nation Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, is still going strong. With a fan base around 75 million, the sport (ironically) isn’t going anywhere in a hurry… but their fuel is. Sunoco, which has provided NASCAR with top quality racing fuel since 2004, made 2011 the first year that NASCAR started using “green” fuel, both literally and figuratively speaking. Despite concerns raised over performance Sunoco’s Green E15 formula has received rave reviews.

Argument 3: Although ethanol is said to be better for the environment, ethanol doesn’t really yield the most energy content then petrol does.

Gasoline was not invented; it is a naturally made product that petroleum industry has taken over, kerosene being the principal product. Gasoline goes through a process called “distillation”, volatile is separated, more valuable fractions of crude petroleum. However, what was made was all the new ways and numerous forms of processes needed to improve the quality of

Gasoline is a better fuel to use compared to using a food fuel because of how much energy it gives us per mile. Gasoline has a lower energy content compared to ethanol, which means that we would need a bigger amount of ethanol to take us to the same destination. (“Types of

Whale oil was also extensively used in the 1700’s and 1800’s, and was the fuel of choice for many homes around the world. Then, in 1828, the first internal combustion engine to be patented in the U.S. was designed to run on a blend of ethanol and turpentine. However, while fossil fuels became popular because of their low cost and abundance of materials, the sales of biofuels dropped. Luckily, during World War I, there was a shortage of fossil fuels, and it was discovered that ethanol could be mixed with gasoline to produce a usable fuel source. More recently, the United States also became interested in biofuels during the 1973 and 1979 oil embargoes, when petroleum prices rose dramatically. In May 2009, President Obama established the Biofuels Interagency Working Group. This interagency approach accelerated the investment in biofuels. As a company, we must make the next step in the progression of

Gasoline vehicles have a few different ways of mixing and making more environmentally friendly gasoline that is more efficient than others. Mixing gasoline and ethyl or methanol creates a product known as gasohol. This has reduced emission of pollution and has lower cost compared to normal gasoline. “In 1973, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acted on the problem and set a time-scale for the gradual elimination of leaded fuels. The amount of lead was to be reduced from 2 to 3 grams per gallon (the 1973 average) to 0.5 g/gal by 1979. Ultimately, the addictive was to be totally eliminated from all gasoline” (“Gasoline”). The amount of lead that is allowed in gasoline was reduced from 2 to 3 grams each gallon of gasoline to 0.5 gallon by 1979.

This essay will first discuss the advantages of using corn ethanol as the main source of fuel in the future, such as the renewable features of corn itself, and the benefits of using corn ethanol as an additive of gasoline instead of using gasoline alone. However, everything has its strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, the second part of the essay will discuss some of the weaknesses in applying the fuel into practical usage. For example, corn ethanol currently encounters technical limitations serving itself as a standalone fuel, meaning that corn ethanol can only function by combining itself with a certain amount of gasoline, while gasoline is a kind of fossil fuel. Lastly, this essay will conduct a comparison with other renewable resources in the world, including solar power, other biofuels, and hydrogen fuel.