No to Diesel Fuel, Yes To Ethanol

Within the decade, we’ve seen fuel prices skyrocket exorbitantly. And with tensions in the Middle East not coming to a ceasefire, expect fuel supply to be scarce. Faced with such dilemma, the search for a better alternative to fossil fuel is on. Environmentalist with the help of some politicians have been pushing for the use of ethanol, which is a plant-based fuel derived from crops such as sugar cane and corn. Unlike gasoline, ethanol has many advantages that steer mother earth away from further damage.

Ethanol is considered a  renewable energy, since it’s harvested from a slew of crops that are grown domestically on a constant basis and further more it the damage to the soil is only at a minimum or non-existent at all. Furthermore, the progression of our technology would able us to maximize the potential of ethanol not limited to being a fuel for vehicles. On the other hand, harvesting gasoline depletes earth’s natural resources and damages our environment if not treated properly. The accumulation of waste from the conversion of fossil fuels can severely degrade our environment and takes a lot of financial support to clean up. Moreover, accidents like unwanted oil spills and tanker leaks can be averted if we would switch to ethanol because of its chemical structure it breaks down when it comes to contact with water. Inside the car, ethanol can be combined with gasoline to reduce toxic by products from a car’s exhaust by as much as 46%. In today’s vehicles, manufacturers have created engines that can now run blended ethanol fuel. Vehicles can be converted to flex fuel vehicles to be able to purely run on ethanol fuel. As many as the benefits of using ethanol, critics argue that ethanol is not as fuel efficient as what gasoline is. Studies have shown that a gallon of E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline would only produce 71% energy compared to the same amount of gasoline. Fuel mileage is lowered by 29% when running on ethanol. Being a premium fuel, ethanol has a superior octane rating, which is the ability to control ignition inside the combustion chamber. Unfortunately, flex fuel vehicles has a lower compression ratio that prevents detonation when fueled with regular gas. Although it doesn’t emit that much greenhouse gases, the absorption of water and dirt can cause ethanol fuel to destroy a car’s engine if they are not filtered out properly.

The heated debate between both advantages and disadvantages of ethanol fuel would last for years but countries are slowly but surely starting to produce their own ethanol fuel. Countries like Brazil and the United States produce 86% of the world’s ethanol. In Brazil alone, they have switched to using ethanol since the seventies. With support from their government, their dependency for foreign oil has waned and was replaced by the increased usage of ethanol. As a result, it helped their domestic economy and boosted income for their farmers. Due to the lower fuel economy, Brazil priced their ethanol fuel 30% cheaper than gasoline and they were able to not only save on gas but also save mother earth as well.

Ethanol is the future of renewable energy and with supporting technology to make it more efficient, we could soon see the whole world running on it.

Additional articles about Shell Promo

About the author

Louie advocates the use of ethanol as opposed to diesel fuel

Please Rate This Article

Select Rating Excellent Very Good Interesting Fair Could Use Improvement

Number of ratings: 0
Rating: 0