Future´s fuel; Ethanol
As many of you may know all the oil prices and oil necessity have caused many countries to investigate other types of fuels. The most effective fuel found until know is ethanol.
Already many cars are now using some percentage of ethanol; the highest percentage in normal diesel cars is 10% of ethanol in diesel. Normal cars don´t have to be tuned to use 10% of less of ethanol. After discovering the potential of ethanol the challenge was to create a car that can use 100% ethanol based gas.
Brazil, the pioneer of ethanol. In the 1970´s oil crisis Brazil realized that oil was soon going to be a potential weapon (and hey they were right weren´t they? Look at Chavez doing anything he wants because of his best weapon, oil). They didn´t like the idea of depending on another country and its oil so, they invested millions of dollars in finding a solution. They would’ve never thought the solution would be sugar-cane, palm or corn based. From 1975 to 2003 about 40% of cars in Brazil run 100% on ethanol. Recently the Brazilian government estimated that they have saved about 55 billion dollars from 1975 to 2003 in oil imports.
The controversy in one of these crops is corn. Corn is said to be a scam and only is being used in it because of the excellent advertisement the corn producers have made. They say that it takes more energy to produce corn and make it into ethanol than the energy the ethanol corn gives. They said this is being used because of the advertisement the corn has had. Also because the main corn crop owners are US senators therefore they have put the prices high up and pressured many people into buying from them. Another issue that people argue is the food that was going to markets for human consume is now going to ethanol because of the better prices. So every time someone fills up their tank 100% ethanol a person could’ve have had corn for 1 year. Scientists just never satisfy people. In my opinion it is foolish to argue that ethanol is bad because of these reasons. If we were to continue using gasoline and diesel we wouldn’t be around for much more.
Another small fact about the inefficiency of corn is a comparison between the US and Brazil. Brazil is able to produce a liter of ethanol of sugar-cane with 22 cents while the US still hasn’t gotten their prices down; they need 30 cents to produce a corn-based liter of ethanol.
The all-time fight since 1975 has been gasoline/diesel vs. ethanol. Although ethanol uses up 34% faster than gasoline it is still has many more advantages that are more important that efficiency. Ethanol uses up itself up 34% faster than gasoline it still covers that gap with the cheapness it is to produce ethanol. What I mean is, ethanol is more than 34% cheaper to produce and buy than gasoline or even diesel, so this cheapness covers for its not so good efficiency.
Not only is ethanol better for humans but also for the environment. Ethanol does produce CO2 and water but in a smaller factor. While normal unleaded gasoline gives out 2.44 CO2 equivalent while ethanol only gives out 1.94 CO2 equivalent (-21% less CO2 is given out by ethanol). “CO2 equivalent is how much global warming a given amount and type of greenhouse gases may cause. “
Although ethanol is commonly used in cars it is also available for other engines or turbines such as the ones in airplanes, lawnmowers, tractors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel#Efficiency_of_common_crops
