Ethanol Pollution

The ethanol production process starts with growing corn, on average an acre of corn yields close to 7,110 pounds of corn that require 140 gallons of fossil fuels to grow through the use of liquid fertilizer and powering machinery (Ethanol Fuel from Corn par. 4). The corn is harvested and transported to an ethanol refinery where it is ground, then water is added to create a mash in which enzymes break down the corn into sugar, afterward the sugar is mixed with yeast and fermented to produce ethanol (Ethanol Fuel: is ethanol par. 9-10). During the process of growing and processing the corn needed to manufacture one gallon of ethanol, it requires 131,000 British Thermal Units (BTU) to generate a gallon of ethanol while a gallon of ethanol produces only 77,000 BTU (Ethanol Fuel from Corn par. 5). The net ratio of energy for ethanol production is undesirable because ethanol has barely over half of the total energy needed to produce ethanol. Other materials can produce ethanol, such as switch grass or wood biomass, however, their energy returns are just as atrocious, needing forty-five percent and fifty-seven percent more energy to produce ethanol than it provides, respectively (Lang par. 5). This net

The United States should increase the amount of corn based ethanol used as fuel. The environment would be protected by the burning of corn based ethanol. Because burning ethanol requires greater complete combustion, the exhaust gases of ethanol are much cleaner than those of gasoline. The use of ethanol-blended fuel (primarily E85, 85% ethanol 15% gasoline ) has the ability to reduce the net emissions of greenhouse gases by 37.1%. E10 (90% gasoline 10% ethanol) reduces the greenhouse gas emission by 3.9%. The additives in gasoline such as tetraethyl lead, are dangerous when admitted into the air and if are spilled in the environment. If there were to be a fuel spill of corn based ethanol, the fuel would be more “easily biodegraded or diluted

Technological advances that are needed to justify the use of Ethanol include the ability to provide higher yields of corn per acre, the reduction of resources and energy needed to mill ethanol and an improvement in the mileage efficiency for vehicles using ethanol. We are working towards reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and our development of alternative energy sources, but we are not there yet. More research and development in the lab, along with rational reviews of the resources that will be needed and used during production which consequently impacts consumers’ needs to occur more thoroughly before we initiate action. However, even if we do create a sustainable fuel source, I don’t think we are addressing the larger picture. According

To start with, the lecturer debunks the author's first conjecture since ethanol removes carbon dioxide from the atomsphere. To elaborate in detail, the lecturer claims that although ethanol releases carbon dioxide as known as greenhouse gas, ethanol is made from plants such as corns. so the process of growing corns actually counteracts the release of the gas. This view is in direct opposition to the author's claim that ethanol is harmful as gasoline.

The renewable fuel can damage the motor-engines that it is being used to power from the mixture of ethanol and alcohol, which is corrosive. Older models of automobiles are at the greatest risk for being ruined by the renewable fuel, however, engines in newer models of cars are capable of handling it. When an older engine has this new mixture of fuel go through it, there is a chance every time the automobile is turned on that the engine can explode causing injury or death (Top Ten). The Environmental Protection Agency is backing the Renewable Fuel Standards saying that it is protecting the environment. However, there are studies that disprove that statement by showing ethanol is more harmful than fossil fuels. Producing ethanol actually affects water because ethanol consumes 200 times the amount of water that corn crops do. Also, more people are farming corn to sell for ethanol usage which means there are more chemicals going into the soil (Top Ten).

Second, using some plants like corn which are utilized as sources of ethanol leads to a reduction in food product, because many people cannot use these

Ethanol is used to create perfumes but more importantly is mixed with gasoline to make it more efficient. The potential for using more ethanol is that it is safer for the environment and is also better on your car than gasoline. It is safer because it reduces air emissions when mixed with gas. The reason it is better on your car is because it keeps the injectors and fuel line cleaner than gasoline does.

Another AFV energy source is methanol, a type of alcohol. Methanol can be produced from a variety of sources such as coal or natural gas, natural gas being the least costly source. The overall effect of import dependency is relatively the same as that of LNG. Denatured alcohol, or ethanol, can be made from corn and other biomass products. The supply within the United States is very limited at best and foreign supply would be required to fill the demands if ethanol AFV numbers increase. Ethanol is used to reformulate gasoline in California as a substitute for the recent reversal of state guidelines to add Methyl Tertiary-Butyl Ether (MTBE) to gasoline. The total demand within California requires approximately 10% of all ethanol consumed must be imported. Increased demand will increase the need for importation due to California and the United States current production capacity levels. No new ethanol production plants are scheduled for construction at this time therefore guaranteeing the import demands.

Ethanol production in the U.S. has been on the rise for over the last 10 years. Production totals were around 115,604 barrels (1,000 barrels) in 2006 and has more than doubled by 2014 reaching 341,419 barrels (1,000 barrels). A majority of the US ethanol is made from corn. In 2013 the U.S. used 4.7 billion bushels of corn (40% of the harvest) to produce over 13 billion gallons of

and consequently increased the profit of ethanol producers. On the other hand, when gasoline becomes

Ethanol is also known as bioethanol is a sustainable liquid transport fuel derived from biomass (Biofuels Association of Australia, 2015). Ethanol has many different uses such as in industry (as solvent), food (in alcohol beverages), medicine (sterilising agent), transport (fuel) and agriculture (Biofuels Association of Australia, 2015). Ethanol has a boiling point of 78.5c, density of .789 and a molecular weight of 46.0684mol (Biofuels Association of Australia, 2015). Ethanol is now usually used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form as a replacement for gasoline, where it is blended with gasoline to improve vehicle emissions and power (Biofuels Association of Australia,

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

This happy picture ethanol has painted, however, might be too good to be true. As the demand for ethanol rises, the demand for corn grown by American farmers also rises. As the demand for corn rises, the water necessary to irrigate those crops also rises. As water use rises, our water supply diminishes. At first glance, ethanol as a new fuel supply appeared to be the answer to all of our problems, but now Americans need to reconsider this corn-grown miracle.

The work of Rattray (2012) reports that the United State's "The United State's corn production and acreage has increased over time due to the growing global demand. Corn is being utilized for food, feed, industrial uses and ethanol production, but there are many factors that affect the global levels of supply and demand. Because of these factors, the corn industry has had to evolve over the past several decades to meet the increasing demand." (p.1)

With oil prices at an all-time high of more than US$100 a barrel and the U.S. government subsidizing farmers to grow crops for energy, U.S. farmers have massively shifted their cultivation toward bio-fuel feed stocks, especially maize, often at the expense of soybean and wheat cultivation. About 30 percent of U.S. maize production will go into ethanol in 2008 rather than into world food and feed markets. Worldwide, ethanol accounts for around 5 percent of grain production, according to statistics from the Earth Policy Institute.