Ethanol is an alternative fuel source fermented from corn, grains or agricultural wastes.
Corn-based ethanol is a type of ethanol produced from corn and used as a biomass. Biomass is
organic matter that is used as a fuel, especially in most power stations for the creation of
electricity.
Corn-based ethanol impacts the environment positively and negatively. Using corn-based
ethanol reduces 18%-29% of greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. Also, ethanol is made
with organic material. So when ethanol spills occur, 74% of it is broken down within 5 days. The
two main by-products from corn-based ethanol are CO2 and DDGS (distiller grains), both these
products can be used in other areas. For example, the CO2 can be taken and used in the food
and drink industries. Distiller grains can be used in feed for cows, or crushed to produce oil for
food and other production uses. On the other hand, there are also some cons about using cornbased ethanol. For example, ethanol absorbs water and is highly corrosive, so shipping ethanol
through existing pipelines is a challenge. Also, because ethanol absorbs water, it has a shorter
tank life than gasoline. When buying fuel, one of the first things you think of is how long it is
going to last, and with corn-based ethanol the answer isn’t a very great number. Corn prices in
the United States are also
skyrocketing, which is why some
people don’t like the idea of using
corn-based fuel. Corn-based
ethanol might be good for the
environment, but fossil fuel
extracting businesses are losing
money because so many people
are coming up with different fuel
sources. Switching from fossil fuels
over to more natural based fuels is
good, but it causes some
companies to lose a lot of money. So it might be better for the environment, but not for the
economy. Ethanol production is becoming very popular in the United States. World ethanol
production for transport fuel tripled between 2000 and 2007 from 17 billion to more than 52
billion liters. From 2007 to 2008, the share of ethanol in global gasoline type fuel use increased
from 3.7% to 5.4%. Ethanol fuel has also has something call the “gasoline gallon equivalency”
which means that 1.5 US gallons of ethanol, is equal to 1 gallon of gasoline. Production process.
The basic steps for large-scale production of ethanol are fermentation of
sugars, distillation, and dehydration. Ethanol is produced by microbial fermentation of the
sugar. Microbial fermentation currently only works directly with sugars. For the ethanol to be
usable as a fuel, the majority of the water must be removed. Most of the water is removed by
distillation. Corn is the main feedstock crop fuel in the United States. Some environmental
things that some people are concerned about are the carbon footprints that the agriculture
machinery are going to leave. Also, in the production of corn-based ethanol, huge amounts of
water are needed. This brings up concerns like the depletion of groundwater, or polluted
runoff. A University of Nebraska study in 2009 showed corn ethanol directly emits 51% less
greenhouse gas than gasoline. However this study does not take into account the greenhouse
gasses involved in production and transportation. Because ethanol is mostly made from yellow
corn, it went up in price. Since a lot of farmers saw the potential to make money, they stopped
growing white corn, and white corn is the main ingredient in Mexican tortillas. The United States
is rankest as the worlds biggest ethanol producer, followed by Brazil, than European Union,
China, Thailand, Canada, India, Colombia, and ending off with Australia. As you can see on the
graph below, ethanol has always been more expensive than gasoline. Because gasoline is fairly
easy to extract from the earth, its always been cheaper than an alternative fuel source. Ethanol,
on the other hand, is more expensive to make because it has more steps in its production.
Research actually shows that gasoline has a longer tank life than corn-based ethanol. Gasoline
also has significant higher
greenhouse gas emissions
than corn ethanol. But
like I’ve stated
previously, they don’t
factor in the production of
ethanol when they do the
studies how much
pollution it causes. An
economic problem with
ethanol is that if it
becomes our official
alternative fuel, farmers
are going to start growing
crops like soybeans and
corn for that purpose, and
not for the purpose of
feeding all the people who live on the earth. Also, a lot of crops are going to be dedicated to
solely growing fuel for ethanol, which will hugely limit the already scarce land that we use to
grow our consumption food. So I do think that finding an alternative fuel source is a good idea,
but we need to make sure we do our resource so that it does not endanger any of the necessities
that we need to survive.
http://www.ethanolrfa.org/pages/ethanol-facts-environment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_ethanol
http://greenthefuture.com/ETHANOL_PROSCONS.html
http://alternativefuels.about.com/od/ethanol/a/whatsethanol.htm