Ethanol as an Alternative Energy Source Essay

One main reason we use corn ethanol for fuel is because it is a renewable resource. This corn ethanol is not entirely made out of corn. It is made from sugar cane or grasses, in other words, plant materials. These easy renewable sources are why we had the idea to make this fuel and continue on with it. Due to

California laws have very high support for advanced biofuel development. The California Legislature urges the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take action to amend the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard to favor non-food crop biofuel. As a result, this would promote the development of advanced fuels by simply using grasses, wood, algae and other plants to make cellulosic ethanol. Because cellulose makes up nearly half of all plant biomass, cellulosic ethanol is considered the largest potential source of biofuel in the near future. This would eliminate the need to rely on other countries for fuel when the U.S. can establish their own industry. The positive externalities would be more jobs and less pollution in America. However, the process of converting plant-life into ethanol is much more difficult that it is for starch to become ethanol. Consumers may yet face exceedingly high prices for cellulosic ethanol from within U.S. borders.

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)

In the New York Times article, “As Ethanol Booms, Critics warn of Environmental Effect”, Erica Gies writes about the many misconceptions of how ethanol is impacting everyday lives. She narrates the drawbacks of producing ethanol and how it was suppose to reduce emissions, but this is questionable due to the lengthy process and number of refineries and resources needed. Then she goes into further details about the local effects in our nation’s increased food prices, water pollution and consumption. By writing this article in the New York Times Gies’s primary audience will be those subscribed to New York Times, or follow this newspaper regularly. The secondary audience will be anyone caught in conversation by someone who has read the article and that maybe directly or indirectly related to ethanol issues.

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

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

This report extensively analyses the production and breakdown of Ethanols, to assess its properties and their relation to being a fuel. The use of Ethanol as reliable source of renewable energy and its current effects on society. The potential use of ethanol as an alternative to coal and fossil fuels, the advantages and disadvantages of Ethanol.

For over forty years now, scientists and researchers have been tirelessly searching for an alternative to fossil fuels. Biofuels have become an interesting contender in the search for the replacement of the non-renewable energy source. Biofuels have been used throughout history for over thousands of years. There is a large debate over biofuels and its true impact on the environment. Those involved in the discussion debating whether biofuels have any real overwhelming benefits compared to fossil fuels could argue for its usage. According to recent research performed by the University of Michigan, biofuels may not be the best alternative for fossil fuels. Regardless of its impact on the environment, biofuels are becoming more popular particularly when the price of oil rises.

Ethanol fuel has many positive features as an alternative to the use of liquid fuel. First, ethanol is renewable. A relatively safe fuel would show very few engine changes. Second, its energy density is much higher than with some of the other alternative fuels, such as methanol, which means there would be less volume required to go the same distance. With the third benefit of ethanol, it would be able to improve much of the agricultural economies by providing farmers with stable market crops, such as maize and sugar beets, and with

i. Ethanol is considered as a alternative fuel at a lower cost level in relation to gasoline. It is produced by fermenting sugars from a range of feedstock such as wheat and corn. Ethanol is blended with gasoline from E10 (5% ethanol - 95% gasoline) to E85 (85% ethanol - 15% gasoline).

The most noticeable advantage of corn fuel as an enhancement of fossil fuels is also the biggest advantage of ethanol energy a renewable fuel. Gasoline as a fuel is extracted from petroleum, and what makes petroleum an unreliable source of energy is that petroleum is nonrenewable, meaning it would run out some day in the future. Contrary, corn ethanol is a renewable source of energy, meaning if corns are replanted and remade into fuel, corn ethanol can be a long-term, sustainable energy source. Corn ethanol has the potential to produce a perfect

What environmental benefits do we receive form an influx in ethanol as an alternative fuel? First let’s look