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Introduction to Ethanol


Ethanol


Ethanol (ethyl alcohol) is an alcohol produced by fermenting and distilling starch crops that have been converted into simple sugars.

Corn-based ethanol is renewable, biodegrades easily and can help the United States be less dependent upon foreign oil.

why does it make sense to run our cars and trucks on ethanol and other biofuels?

Ethanol would eliminate most U.S. gasoline consumption; Ethanol would avoid the costs, delays and environmental impact of new oil refineries; Ethanol would keep control of our fuel in America and out of often-hostile foreign hands.

Ethanol fuel — in the form of E85, a mix of 85% grain alcohol and 15% gasoline — is the only one of those immediately available. E85, using ethanol made in the USA from corn, isn't a science experiment or pipe dream. It's real fuel, sold now, and 5 million vehicles already are on the road with the systems needed to burn it.

Why will companies dealing with ethanol increase within the next few years?

It's almost impossible to find outside the Midwest. There is substantial opportunity for growth!

Ethanol yields roughly 26% more energy than it takes to produce it, according to a just-published study by the University of California at Berkeley. That's because corn grows using free sunlight and because farming has gotten very efficient. Gasoline provides only about 84% of the energy required to produce it.

After doubling in size, then doubling again the past few years, the ethanol industry consists of 95 U.S. plants that produced 4 billion gallons last year. That's only enough to replace 3% of the 140 billion gallons of gasoline the USA burned last year. And it's almost ridiculously far from the 119 billion gallons of ethanol necessary for a nationwide switch to E85.

An additional 32 ethanol plants are under construction, and nine are being expanded. That will add about 1.8 billion more gallons annually but still leaves ethanol a bit player in the fuel game. "We need to get serious about making ethanol available," Ford Motor CEO Bill Ford says. He pledges to boost production of E85-compatible vehicles 25% this year, to 250,000.

Ford showed an ethanol-electric hybrid SUV at the Washington, D.C., auto show in January that would burn E85 instead of gasoline to power the internal combustion engine. Ford Executive Vice President Anne Stevens says the E85-burning hybrid Escape is "a development program, not a research program." Development is the term automakers use when they plan to put the vehicle on sale within a few years.

All modern vehicles can burn a widely sold fuel, often called gasohol, that's 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline. But only specially outfitted cars and trucks can use E85. They are called flexible-fuel vehicles — or FFVs — and are designed to burn straight gasoline, E85 or any gas/ethanol blend in between.

Though they cost at least an extra $150 each to manufacture, they are often priced the same as conventional gas-only vehicles. You'd probably not even notice if you bought one.

Source: USA Today








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