regarding ethanol, 1. what is it? 2. how does it generate power? 3. what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Question

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Answer 1

Ethanol is a gasoline alternative that is part alcohol. Read the Wikipedia article for more details.

Answer 2

The lack of accuracy amazes me!!

1. Ethanol is simply ethyl alcohol;
2. Burning it creates power the same way burning gasoline creates power (I am assuming you are referring to it's use in place of gasoline in the internal combustion engines);
3a. It's chief advantage is that it is a renewable resource since it can be easily derived from plants such as corn using distillation (It's just the same as "moonshine".)
3b. It's chief disadvantage is that it requires an energy source to produce it. In other words you have to harvest it, clean it, heat it to distill it, etc. So you end up trading a fuel source at the front end to derive a different fuel source on the output. There is no free lunch.

Answer 3

Ethanol is a pork-barrel boondoggle for corn producers. It generates political power by raising revenue to hire more lobbyists to lobby for more ethanol usage. My cynicism is the result of this fact: even if 100% of the United States' corn production were used to make ethanol, it would meet only 16% of the country's demand for gasoline for automobiles. Using food (corn) to create gasoline is not a solution to the world's energy problems, and will result only in driving up the cost of food, which is great for the corn producers who hire the pro-ethanol lobbyists but not so good for the less wealthy people who will have to pay a good deal more for corn and corn-fed animals.

Answer 4

Ethanol is ethyl alcohol, the same kind of alcohol in wine, beer and liquors. It can be added to gasoline to improve performance and reduce emissions.

Answer 5

hey,

ask a college student at this website. They may be helpful.

http://www.cbargain.com/