What Is Ethanol: A Great Alternative To Gasoline?

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)

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

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

Ethanol is the fuel of the future. Really? How so? Ethanol will solve the energy crisis. That sounds a little far fetched. Ethanol stimulates time travel. Alright, that’s just a flat-out lie. It seems that these days everybody and their brother thinks that ethanol is the magic key to the future of powering automobiles and solving the problem of dependence on foreign oil. Well, that is not the case. Ethanol is not the energy source of the future; in fact ethanol only creates more energy problems.

In today’s society, many countries are vigorously experimenting with different products and resources in order to find new forms of energy. In America for example, there are many people debating on whether the production of corn ethanol should be expanded or reduced. Considering the arguments present in Passage A, Passage B, and the graphic, America should reduce the production of corn ethanol.

In the eleven years since the Renewable Fuel Standard was signed in to law, US Corn production has shifted from feeding faces to fuel tanks, stirring a controversy over corns purpose. In 2007, the food or fuel controversy landed on the floor of the United Nations when Jean Ziegler, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, stated that diverting cropland from food to fuel is a crime against humanity (Ferrett). The Renewable Fuel Standard, signed in to law in 2005, is a mandate that requires renewable fuels, such as corn based ethanol, be blended into transportation fuel (“Renewable…”). Ethanol is grain alcohol that can be fermented from many sources, most commonly corn and sugar cane, that is then blended with gasoline (“Ethanol…”). Today, roughly forty percent corn grown in the US is used to produce ethanol, accounting for the crops single largest use. Expansion of ethanol production in the United States has been intended to lower emissions, and increase energy independence; however, this well intentioned program could be having a detrimental effect on developing nations by increasing the cost of and decreasing the supply of corn.

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

POET LLC is one of the leading fuel ethanol producers in the United States, operating twenty-seven corn to ethanol plants and one of only three corn stover to ethanol plants in the United States. The success of the company has come from capitalizing on government policy. This policy under the EPA’s renewable fuel standard provides incentives in the market place. Due to this incentive along with process innovation POET has grown into an industry leader. The company has a wide range of intellectual property and is constantly pushing its employees to come up with new ideas and processes. As an Associate Research Scientist, I am able to collaborate on new ideas first hand. I see many new ideas come through the pipeline every day. Once an idea is developed it is subjected to scrutiny, it must survive benchtop experiments, economic modeling, and ultimately a run through at a research plant. Ultimately then trials are done at one of the twenty-six plants that POET manages. This whole process can be stopped at any time if an experiment fails, the economics do not make sense, or if managers decide other ideas get priority of resources.

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

Since Ethanol has been introduced to American markets its use has risen. However, this change does not just impact Ethanol production, but also the production and market of other areas that do not directly impact Ethanol. While it is hard to pinpoint a change in market to a single thing, Ethanol has an affect on other markets, such as High Fructose Corn Syrup. Ethanol not only has this affect on the High Fructose Corn Syrup Market, but through this also has a greater affect on related markets such as Corn and the Sugar markets. Discovering this impact not only reveals the positives and negatives

Well we all know that the energy system is very unstable because the total energy available on the earth is limited, and man has exploited all the conventional technologies to fulfill his needs. By the use of these conventional technologies, the world also has a disability, with problems such as global warming. Consumption of energy by man increased gradually as his wants also increase. The conventional energy resources mainly include fossil fuels, but research shows that this fuel source will be depleted completely in approximately 20-25 years. This could cause major setbacks around the world. As a result, we need an alternative source of fuel that could keep the world running on its wheel. One possibility is ethanol. Chemically extract

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.

2005, 325). Ethanol is not a clean fuel, and it is causing more pollution than gasoline does.

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