Ethanol, even Cellulosic, doesn't eliminate GHGs
The Carbon Cycle
Ethanol is attractive out of the many alternative energy sources because it can be widely used as an all around motor fuel (Ethanol, 2007). This means it has the ability to power all motors which are now run on fossil fuels (i.e. the car, the train, the bus, etc.), not to mention that it can also be used for electricity generation. As ethanol ignites faster and leaves fewer waste products than standard gasoline, the authors of the article Renewable Fuels (2007), were able to conclude that most vehicles in circulation today can run with up to 10% ethanol inside the tank, perfectly. Dolbear said this year that some new vehicles can even run with 85% ethanol! Ethanol is made from bio-mass. So, the carbon it emits is just reabsorbed into plants which are going to make more ethanol (Chemical Compound, 2007). This halts the energy crisis in its tracks. Another disadvantage of fossil fuels has to do with the fact that in the West there aren’t very many oil reserves. As a whole, and in the U.S. especially, there is political tension about the fact that if there was some sort of problem, and the constant stream of oil we receive from the Middle East was denied to us, exploited or interrupted, we would be in big trouble (Barta, 2007). Ethanol can be produced anywhere that certain plants or animal fats can be grown or produced. And, it makes lots of local farming jobs.
he good news is that ethanol is a green fuel, which ____means that it burns with less carbon output. ____According to Cellulosic Ethanol (2007), Renewable Fuels (2007), and Cellulosic Ethanol (n.d.) common ethanol obtained from starch makes 18-29% less GHG emissions than gasoline, not to mention cellulosic ethanol (ethanol obtained from cellulose bio-mass), which makes 85% less.
T
But, there a disadvant- ages of ethanol also. As a f-
18 - 29% less
GHGs.
uel, it can be corrosive to older engines (Ethanol, 2007). Barta (2007) says that the demand for the corn most commonly used today to make ethanol is pushing up prices for the corn in poor, rural areas. Locals in
Mexico are finding it harder to buy the corn they use to make tortillas, a staple in their diet. Similarly, inflationary cost pressures are being felt in developing countries like India and China, increasing poverty. Mixing ethanol and gasoline together may cause acid rain from the nitrogen oxides which form (Renewable Fuels, 2007). And, ethanol does contain a suspected carcinogen.
Many people are wondering: is it just to clear forests to get woodchips? Is it okay to let poverty-stricken people in third world countries burn their rainforests to grow energy grass? The coming years may define the lives of those living millennia after us.
