Ethanol fuel, an applied use of ethanol (which is also known as ethyl alcohol — the same alcohol found in alcoholic beverages) is one of four common alcohol fuels. It is often made from agricultural products. It can be mass-produced by sugar fermentation or from cellulose (bioethanol), or by hydration of ethylene from petroleum and other sources.
Anhydrous ethanol (ethanol with less than 1% water) can be blended with gasoline in varying quantities up to pure ethanol (E100), and most internal combustion engines will tolerate a 10% ethanol fuel mixture, (E10). Most automobile manufacturers in the United States are producing engines that can use up to E85.
Bioethanol is an alternative to gasoline for flexifuel vehicles. Bioethanol provides fuel for automobiles and other forms of transportation, particularly in Brazil. Currently produced from the starch or sugar in a wide variety of crops, there is some debate about bioethanol's viability as a fossil fuel replacement. Public concerns include the large amount of arable land required for crops,[3] and the energy-vs.-pollution balance of the ethanol production cycle. While cellulosic ethanol research and development promises to allay those concerns, most analysts agree that large-scale production is not expected in the near future.
I hope it helps!
2007-10-14 02:33:29
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answer #1
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answered by Rhonnie 5
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Rhonnie has a very good explanation. Some steam engines and early internal combustion engines were operated on what was really a very strong whiskey. It had too much water in it which caused problems, so it was abandoned. It didn't matter so much for a steam engine, but the water reduced the heat of the flame and other fuels were more efficient.
Other fuels, such as those made from oil and from coal are still more efficient, having more energy per equal volumes. The reason for the interest in ethanol is that since it can be made very dry there is less of a problem using it and it can be made from plants. As a bio-fuel it is the ultimate in using solar power and it is CO2 neutral. The plants take in as much CO2 as is given off by a bio-fuel. At present only vegetable oil can match petroleum for energy per unit.
There seems also to be an all or nothing mentality about bio-fuels. Because they cannot completely replace petroleum, some say we should reject them. They compete with food production and for farmland, they say, and therefore should not be used, but there are millions of acres not farmed because it is not profitable to grow food there.
Farming is opposite from manufacturing. When a factory is efficient it makes just enough to sell for the next weeks demand. Rain, drought, cold have no effect. In farming, the weather is a problem. Every farmer spends about the same, but if the weather is very good there is too much grown and the price drops, sometimes below the cost of production. If the weather is bad, less is grown and the farmers can make more than the cost of production. But if the weather is very bad there are no crops to sell and they all go broke.
So based on predictions of future weather, stored supplies and many other factors, farmers may not plant all their land to food crops. Growing a fuel crop gives them more economic flexibility. Developing a fuel crop that will grow on marginal land would be even better.
The least polluting and most efficient type of vehicle would be a steam-electric hybrid.
2007-10-14 14:00:28
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answer #2
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answered by Taganan 3
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before everything, you need to differentiate corn ethanol from cellulosic ethanol (like the Brazilians produce). Ethanol itself is somewhat fee effective, yet ethanol from corn isn't unavoidably. the only reason u . s . has been pushing for Corn ethanol lots is by using the fact we've numerous corn (as you suggested). Ethanol from sugar or mashes is a lot extra fee-effective to make and extra fee effective than oil. As for the CO2 question, the extensive benefit of ethanol is that is extra surely included into our present day hydrocarbon financial equipment with out the international warming concern. definite, ethanol, like different hydrocarbons releases CO2 while combusted. yet that CO2 become initially taken from the air to make the plant interior the 1st place. So, you have a closed carbon loop the place CO2 is continuously taken from the air to enhance the plant, then released returned while ethanol is combusted. So, ethanol gasoline isn't a internet contributor to greenhouse emissions (like petroleum based gasoline) Your ordinary concern looks to be corn, no longer unavoidably ethanol. the respond right here is to offer ethanol from non-corn aspects.
2016-12-29 08:42:00
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answer #3
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answered by Anonymous
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Ask this question to a Brazilian. I believe Brazil is a step up on alternative fuels.
2007-10-16 04:53:51
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answer #4
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answered by antonio d 2
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it is a mixture of corn (it can be made from other things like switchgrass but corn is the most common) and petroleum. it can fuel cars and provide electricity, it can do everything oil can do.
2007-10-14 02:35:54
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answer #5
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answered by is better than you 5
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This is the biofuel car of the future
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/45/Lukeandblubberbear.gif
2007-10-15 04:42:53
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answer #6
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answered by biofuelsimon 1
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I think Jesus was the first when he made the water into wine .
2007-10-14 06:50:43
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answer #7
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answered by dad 6
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read this about ethanol production
Only transient Aliens could have aproved that.
They are intending to replace most of the indigenous Forrest's in the world ,with mono cultures for the production of Ethanol,
Non sustainable, chemically grown ,heavily irrigated (with water needed for communities)one specie Forrest's,that have only plagues of insects as fauna which are controlled with pesticides.
Killing all bio diversity,in both flora and fauna ,adding to the destruction and extinction of species ,like nothing we have ever seen before.
All in the quest for alternative energy and to save the Environment ,
The irony here is that the growing eagerness to slow climate change by using biofuels and planting millions of trees for carbon credits has resulted in new major causes of deforestation, say activists. And that is making climate change worse because deforestation puts far more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire world's fleet of cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships combined.
"Biofuels are rapidly becoming the main cause of deforestation in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil," said Simone Lovera, managing coordinator of the Global Forest Coalition, an environmental NGO based in Asunción, Paraguay. "We call it 'deforestation diesel'," Lovera told IPS.
Oil from African palm trees is considered to be one of the best and cheapest sources of biodiesel and energy companies are investing billions into acquiring or developing oil-palm plantations in developing countries. Vast tracts of forest in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and many other countries have been cleared to grow oil palms. Oil palm has become the world's number one fruit crop, well ahead of bananas.
Biodiesel offers many environmental benefits over diesel from petroleum, including reductions in air pollutants, but the enormous global thirst means millions more hectares could be converted into monocultures of oil palm. Getting accurate numbers on how much forest is being lost is very difficult.
The FAO's State of the World's Forests 2007 released last week reports that globally, net forest loss is 20,000 hectares per day -- equivalent to an area twice the size of Paris. However, that number includes plantation forests, which masks the actual extent of tropical deforestation, about 40,000 hectares (ha) per day, says Matti Palo, a forest economics expert who is affiliated with the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica.
"The half a million ha per year deforestation of Mexico is covered by the increase of forests in the U.S., for example," Palo told IPS.
National governments provide all the statistics, and countries like Canada do not produce anything reliable, he said. Canada has claimed no net change in its forests for 15 years despite being the largest producer of pulp and paper. "Canada has a moral responsibility to tell the rest of the world what kind of changes have taken place there," he said.
Plantation forests are nothing like natural or native forests. More akin to a field of maize, plantation forests are hostile environments to nearly every animal, bird and even insects. Such forests have been shown to have a negative impact on the water cycle because non-native, fast-growing trees use high volumes of water. Pesticides are also commonly used to suppress competing growth from other plants and to prevent disease outbreaks, also impacting water quality.
Plantation forests also offer very few employment opportunities, resulting in a net loss of jobs. "Plantation forests are a tremendous disaster for biodiversity and local people," Lovera said. Even if farmland or savanna are only used for oil palm or other plantations, it often forces the local people off the land and into nearby forests, including national parks, which they clear to grow crops, pasture animals and collect firewood. That has been the pattern with pulp and timber plantation forests in much of the world, says Lovera.
Ethanol is other major biofuel, which is made from maize, sugar cane or other crops. As prices for biofuels climb, more land is cleared to grow the crops. U.S. farmers are switching from soy to maize to meet the ethanol demand. That is having a knock on effect of pushing up soy prices, which is driving the conversion of the Amazon rainforest into soy, she says. Meanwhile rich countries are starting to plant trees to offset their emissions of carbon dioxide, called carbon sequestration. Most of this planting is taking place in the South in the form of plantations, which are just the latest threat to existing forests. "Europe's carbon credit market could be disastrous," Lovera said.
The multi-billion-euro European carbon market does not permit the use of reforestation projects for carbon credits. But there has been a tremendous surge in private companies offering such credits for tree planting projects. Very little of this money goes to small land holders, she says. Plantation forests also contain much less carbon, notes Palo, citing a recent study that showed carbon content of plantation forests in some Asian tropical countries was only 45 percent of that in the respective natural forests. Nor has the world community been able to properly account for the value of the enormous volumes of carbon stored in existing forests.
One recent estimate found that the northern Boreal forest provided 250 billion dollars a year in ecosystem services such as absorbing carbon emissions from the atmosphere and cleaning water. The good news is that deforestation, even in remote areas, is easily stopped. All it takes is access to some low-cost satellite imagery and governments that actually want to slow or halt deforestation. Costa Rica has nearly eliminated deforestation by making it illegal to convert forest into farmland, says Lovera.
Paraguay enacted similar laws in 2004, and then regularly checked satellite images of its forests, sending forestry officials and police to enforce the law where it was being violated. "Deforestation has been reduced by 85 percent in less than two years in the eastern part of the country," Lovera noted. The other part of the solution is to give control over forests to the local people. This community or model forest concept has proved to be sustainable in many parts of the world. India recently passed a bill returning the bulk of its forests back to local communities for management, she said.
However, economic interests pushing deforestation in countries like Brazil and Indonesia are so powerful, there may eventually be little natural forest left. "Governments are beginning to realize that their natural forests have enormous value left standing," Lovera said. "A moratorium or ban on deforestation is the only way to stop this."
This story is part of a series of features on sustainable development by IPS and IFEJ - International Federation of Environmental Journalists.
© 2007 IPS - Inter Press Service
Source: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/...
2007-10-14 14:21:12
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answer #8
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answered by Anonymous
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