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Ethanol Isn’t Bad. It’s Just Drawn That Way.
Ethanol’s gotten a bit of a bad rap here in the States of late, largely due to the billions of dollars of federal subsidies that are paid to the oil companies each year to blend this renewable domestic fuel into our gasoline.
There’s been plenty of rumblings from Washington to up the percentage of Ethanol in unleaded gasoline from 10% up to 15%. This has many folks up in arms.
I recently to test FlexFuel-capable 2011 Buick Regal Turbo with conventional gasoline and E85. It got me thinking … Rather than change the percentage of Ethanol in everyone’s gas, why not do more to encourage the use of E85 Ethanol?
Corn-based Ethanol is merely the first phase. It’s time for America to move to phase two, in force.
Ethanol can be distilled from a wide range of sources, from switchgrass, to municipal waste, and even brewery wastewater … with no impact to food supplies.
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On February 24th, 2011 at 7:04 pm John Said:
If 10 and 15% ethanol is problematic so far how is going to E85, 85% ethanol, going to solve any problems? Just because ethanol can theoretically be distilled from other sources doesn’t change the real world difficulties of doing so. In the US it’s coming from corn, and that is in no was sustainable or scalable.
On February 25th, 2011 at 10:07 am david w. beard Said:
Ethanol is a viable replacement to gasoline, but; like many alternative fuels it isn’t perfect. Ethanol has a little better than half the energy density of gasoline. That equates to poorer mileage per gallon. Running a high percentage of ethanol (e85) requires the use of different fittings and rubber compounds in the tank and transfer hoses because it tends to degrade certain compounds and oxidize some metals.
Ethanol has great value as a replacement for fossil fuels, as part of our overall energy mix. It is going to take a mix of technologies to drive us into the future.
On February 25th, 2011 at 10:36 am MPGomatic Said:
@John – Corn established the market. We shouldn’t look to scale up ethanol production with corn. There are far more effective ways to crank up our domestic output.
Ethanol production from other sources isn’t merely theoretical. It’s happening right now and will expand rapidly in the future. The potential of waste-to-ethanol is substantial.
On February 25th, 2011 at 10:40 am MPGomatic Said:
@David – I agree 100% … we absolutely need a mix of technologies to get there.
Take a look at the video, if you haven’t already. The drop in mileage might not be nearly as severe as you might expect with the current range of FlexFuel engines.
If vehicles are designed to be FlexFuel capable from the factory (such as the 2011 Buick Regal Turbo used in this specific test), many options are open … including conversion to run CNG, down the road.
On April 2nd, 2011 at 3:04 pm Phillip J Greene Said:
Problem is that it isn’t viable without those subsidies if it is made from corn. It is also wasteful of our most precious resource, water.
On April 15th, 2011 at 6:39 am tony rotondo Said:
there is plenty of potential if we stop farm subsidation of empty fields and swith to sugar beets that i have heard can produce 3 times as much etanol as corn . also producing butanal instead of etanol