Is ethanol gasoline really going to replace current gasoline worldwide?

Question

Will this happen soon and will this really help climate change?

Answer 1

Eventually yes in part. Ethanol from corn is only borderline efficient, but the projections are that ethanol from cellulose (wood and other plant material like hay, etc) will do the trick. Hopefully in 30 or so years half of the countries gas will be replaced by ethanol. The price is projected to come down to about $1.07 a gallon from slightly over $2.00 now (pre tax price to the gas station). Once that happens it will be difficult to justify paying $60-$80 or more for a barrel of oil.

The problem is that getting ethanol from wood is a lot harder than from corn or sugar. The main problem is the proces to convet it needs to be made more efficient through biotech. I work in the biotech field and a whole lot of money is being spent on the process by the government. The first large scale plants to do it are just beginning to be built. To obtain maximal efficiency would involve modifying both plants and bacterial to assist in the process.

Most modern cars can be modified with little difficulty to run on 80% ethanol.

Brazil has a large scale ethanol industry coming from sugarcane. It supplies nearly half of the countries auto fuel at a cost less than gasoline. Unfortunately the US is too cold to grow enough sugarcane to use the Brazilian system. Due to the price of production and import barriers the US price of sugar is much higher than the world price and therefore ethanol from sugarcane is not an industry here.

According to some studies a gallon of ethanol from corn produces 2 or 2.5 times as much energy as it takes to produce it. Sugarcane is as much as 10 times as much energy in ethanol as it takes to produce it, and projections are that cellulose ethanol will be a similar efficiency of 10 times.

Corn based ethanol is only a partial solution about as good as driving a hybrid. It reduces the greenhouse gasses produced by about half. Sugarcane or cellulose at 90% reduction would be a solution to global warming if implemented on a worldwide scale (for the Automobile component of GW). Since electric cars get their electricity from coal currently in the us, they actually dont really reduce the CO2 release as much as even the inefficient corn ethanol. However US corn production cant be increased to substantially increase the US ethanol supply from corn that currently provides our

The US has more potential surplus farmland that can be used to grow cellulose than much of the rest of the world, so we are in a better position to produce ethanol. Even so hopefully in 30 years 1/3 or more of the worlds auto fuel will be ethanol.

Alone it wont stop global warming, but in combination with changeing our source of electricity to be CO2 neutral, and improvements in efficiency and conservation, it is possilbe that it could delay the CO2 increase. Potentially the US could halve it's CO2 release within 30-50 years if we put a real effort into it. That may buy us time to find a complete solution from new technology. Wind and solar are unlikely to be the big solution and probalby will never meet much more than a small fraction of our energy needs.

Answer 2

I don't think so. First of all there are not enough sources to produce ethanol. For example, we need farms to grow the crops from which ethanol is made and there needs to be processing plants built that can take many years. Currently there are only a handful in the country. Ethanol will be mixed with gasoline until Congress mandates the manufacturing of non-dependent gasoline vehicles. We can harness the sun's solar power, and go back in time when the old Stanley Steamer automobile was run on water that generated a steam powered engine.
I hope there are congressmen and senators using this site.

Answer 3

Not only no, but h*ll no. Ethanol is a scam being supported by politicians from corn-growing states at the behest of the huge agro-conglomerates. It's not cost-effective and won't be for quite some time, if ever. The only thing ethanol production is doing now or will do for quite some time is to drive up the cost of corn and oil. (It takes a lot of oil to plant, fertilize, reap and transport corn, and more to distill ethanol and distribute it.)

Your taxes are paying for it through subsidies, corn is a major source for most foods in the USA and those prices will go up, then you pay more for gas/ethanol at the pump, you get less MPG from it, and you're still paying a full gasoline tax on a gas/ethanol mix. Thank all your friends in congress.

Answer 4

"Replace?" Not entirely--but doing so can help the environment. The reason is that there's no net release of CO2. Ethanol--biofuels--do release CO2--but they are made from plants that first had to take the CO2 out of the air. So, unlike oil or coal, there's no net increase.

But the biggest thing that's going to reduce fossil fuel emmisions is shifting to other technologies--fuel-efficient cars, mass transit, electric powered automobiles (not these silly hybrids), etc.

BTW--mass transit is going to be the big change in American lifestyles. Most people have a distorted view of what's involved--but if you've ever had the pleasure of having access to good mass transit as a comprehensive alternative to driving, you don'tknow what you're missing. Its cheaper, easier, and faster. Andin an urban area, a lot less stressful than coping with raffic. Cars are fine--but Americans deserve to have the choice--and up to now public policy and special interests have denied most Americans that choice.

Answer 5

No. 100% ethanol is a huge investment that the US government is not willing to do. It took over 30 years for Brazil to go 100% ethanol for cars. General Motors, Toyota and Ford have too much power in Washington for that to happen.

Answer 6

I do not see how. There isn't anything I or anybody I know who uses an instrument or tool that relies on ethanol.

As for climate change, that is up to Mother Nature, not us. Even with advances in technology, we still want to kill our weathermen when they predict a warm sunny week in the Pacific Northwest and all we get is wind and rain.

If the climate is changing to warmer temps, I just don't see it. I would welcome it if it did, though.

Answer 7

Nope...
And nope...