could there be some environmental concerns using ethanol?

Question

is it possible that there could be some environmental concerns during the cultivation and manufacturing and production of Ethanol

Answer 1

Nah, nothing worse than the unburned hydrocarbons and the nitrogen oxides generated by the diesel engines used to till the land, plant the corn, cultivate it, and harvest it. Theres only the small matter of wind and water erosion of the soil in which the corn is grown, exhaustion of the soil from overproduction of a single crop, reduction in aquifer levels by irrigation to produce necessary yields and aquifer poisoning by fertilizers, organic or inorganic, applied to the land to get the monster yields and try to prevent soil exhaustion, poisoning of the soil by leaving corn cobs in the field, pollution of the atmosphere by burning them, or using excess energy to recycle them into something more environmentally friendly. The fires used to distill the ethanol could be fueled by in part by corn cobs and dried exhausted mash, and the burners tuned so that only CO2, H20, SO3, P2O3, N2, NO, and NO2 are emitted. Ony a little fossil fuel or wood need be burned to make up the missing energy, and those fires, too can be tuned to emit only greenhouse gasses. Distribution of the product can be done most efficiently by pipelines with electric motor driven pumps, powered by electricity generated elswhere so that the pollution of the generating stations may be ignored. Did I mention the damage done by teenage raiding parties securing the alcohol for their next drinking party, or siphoning off of some ethanol by bootleggers? Oh, and the worst environmental damage of all, that caused by the heavy subsidies required to make the ethanol producing process competitive with fossil fuels. What about the scrapping of the IC engines that were not designed to run on ethanol, and either burned up by trying to use it or simply obsoleted?

No, no significant environmental concerns, provided you don't look too closely.

Edit:
Note that these concerns pale to insignificance when compared to the concerns involved in manufacture of solar panels or wind chargers. Energy production by nuclear fission is looking more and more safe and environmentally friendly all the time. Hopefully, someone will come up with a way of harnessing fission reactions soon.

Answer 2

As I understand it the corn poduction would increase so much and third world countries would suffer from a loss of food source. That the corrupt governments would sell the corn and not feed thier people. The land that is used to grow crops to feed nations would be used for corn production thus be more profitable to sell as fuel and not food. The cost of food would go up significantly as well. not enough good ground to do both.That is as I see and understand it.

Answer 3

you could be concerned about its wastes, they use them for wood,but if they burn it or leave in a forest or river it would be bad for the environment.

if they use pesticides, it would be bad for environment as well because it would enter into its trophic chain

anyway, nothing worse than fossil fuel refining or handling