Everyday we take some form of energy. Energy through food, energy through heat to keep us warm, and energy for fuel. And I mean gasoline , gasoline is a necessity that keeps our infrastructure and economy running. However the price of this necessity has risen from a dollar to three dollars, and it’s been coupled with our ongoing fight against global warming.
Due to this and many more reasons, the State of Union address the 20 by 10 Plan, that is a reduction of gasoline usage by 20% by the next ten years. And filling that void using alternative fuels such as ethanol. Though the 20 by10 Plan may be beneficial for the called for implementation of alternative fuels.
For one the production of ethanol would be harmful to us in the fight of global warming, it’s not cost effective, and three it is not as efficient as those who thought of ethanol before.
How is it that such a fuel would be considered a green fuel when it’s not effective in our fight against global warming? How is it that a fuel that seems to be cheaper than gasoline would not be cheaper than gasoline? And how is it that in many situations ethanol would not be as efficient as some had thought it before?
These are some of the points that are argued today. And they come down to three categories. The environment, cost, and efficiency
Those in favor and against are based on these, and many more categories. But when it comes down to the facts and the figures present, the negatives outshine the positives. And the production of ethanol should not take place.
How is it that the production of ethanol hurts our environment. That is the impact on the environment and the impact on us. The first point that favors the pressure of ethanol on our environment is the fact that it reduces how many carbon particles we admit into the atmosphere. The more carbon particles we have in the atmosphere the more of our radiation gets trapped and the more energy comes back to us, and thus global warming.
Likewise if you produce ethanol, it’s a fuel that we’re allowed to grow and reap for again. That means we control the carbon carmine cycle.
However as Dan Becker, head of the Sierra Club Global Warming Program, states “ There are many ways that ethanol would be a disaster for the environment.
To support this claim, Kingsolver offers multiple statistics that the average American consumer would be unaware of. For example, Kingsolver states that “the average food item on a U.S. grocery shelf has traveled farther than most families go on their annual vacations,” which allows her to bring into light the largest and unexpected economic impact of food: Oil (Kingsolver 4). Fossil fuels “were consumed for the food’s transport, refrigeration, and processing,” and Kingsolver later mentions that “synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides use oil and natural gas as their starting materials, and in their manufacturing” (Kingsolver 5). Kingsolver then asserts that our dependence on nonrenewable resources, like the scarce rain in Tucson or the foreign fossil fuels used in food production, needs to end because “we are going to run out of them” (Kingsolver 21).
With the fuel crisis that is happening in the world today it is now more important than ever to begin the look towards alternative fuel sources. One smart step for the US would be to wean the country slowly off of the gasoline fix and to look into alternative fuels to replace the “never coming back” fossil fuels. It turns out that Ethanol as a hybrid fuel proves to be a notable candidate for this gasoline intervention, per say. Now the United States is currently looking to subsidize fossil fuel alternatives. However, before considering ethanol production as a governmental subsidy, using large amounts of hard earned tax payer money, there has to be many alternative factors that come into play such as making sure the pros out weight the cons as far as environmental benefits and performance output and not to mention looking at the entire matter from an economic or investment perspective. First we need to consider what the ethanol we are talking about actually is and how can we obtain it.
In the United States we have been looking into alternative energies to reduce our dependence on oil and help reduce our carbon footprint. One method the EPA has come out in support of is ethanol production. Ethanol is considered a green fuel because it recycles the burned carbon each time new crops are grown. In theory ethanol is a good stepping stone between using gasoline and zero emission power sources. However biofuels are still young technology that has many problems before it can be useful. The EPA is in full support of biofuels and has mandated that by 2020, 36 billion gallons of biofuels are to be produced in America. Currently almost all of America biofuels comes in the form of corn based ethanol which is extremely inefficient and can cause sustainability problems. Due to this reason only 15 billion gallons of the mandated biofuels can be form corn based ethanol. The rest of the biofuel must come from non-corn based alternatives such as cellulosic ethanol which the EPA projects to create all most all of the 21 billion remaining gallons of ethanol. Cellulosic ethanol uses the cellulose that is in all plants matter to create ethanol. Cellulosic ethanol is far more efficient than corn ethanol because you can use the whole plant and it sets no limitation on what type of plant matter can be used. Even though the EPA projects that these number will be achievable, due to current setbacks and efficiencies cellulosic ethanol will not be able to meet this output within the time constraints and a goal of 2034 years would be more realistic in the long run.
Ethanol production was developed in hopes of severing our ties with fossil fuels in favor of alternative energy, such as biofuels. Although, VOCs emissions are released during production of ethanol in a factory, the quality of air is greatly improved when burning ethanol versus fossil fuels. Burning ethanol instead of fossil fuels reduces the amount of cancer-causing greenhouse gases that go into the atmosphere. Ethanol production ranks at the bottom of industrial water usage, but is still not out of the woods with the abundance of water usage needed in corn feedstock and ethanol manufacturing and processing facilities. Many acres of land are needed to grow corn crops, however, many corn farmers are successful in growing more corn on less acreage.
Stauffer, Nancy. ”MIT ethanol analysis confirms benefits of biofuels.” Laboratory for Energy and the Environment. January 2007.
Biodiesel is considered an environmentally friendly alternative because it reduces the amount many toxic substances. Plants such as soybeans require carbon dioxide from the air to produce their stems, roots and leaves. During biodiesel production from soybean oil, carbon dioxide is produced and released in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is considered a green house gas (GHG). However, this cycle of GHG emission does not neccersarily contribute to the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. This is because the next soybean crop will reuse the carbon dioxide emitted for its growth. Another important environmental benefit is that biodiesel reduces particulate matter (PM), hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions. These benefits occur because biodiesel contains 11% oxygen by weight. Oxygen allows the fuel to burn better, resulting in fewer emissions from unburned fuel. And lastly, biodiesel fuels do not contain any sulfur and does not have an unpleasant smell when it is emitted from vehicles.
In spite of, some people thinking that biodiesel have further disadvantages than advantages others respectably disagree. Supporters of biodiesel have faith in biodiesel being worthy substitutes of diesel fuel since it can help improve the environment. “According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by at least by 57 percent and up to 86 percent with the use of biodiesel” (“What is Biodiesel?”).
The problem today is the gas companies make too much on their products. Shell's profits jumped enormously in only three months. The Company announced an 80% jump in earnings for the last three months, to $3.25 billion (Shell Posts Record Profits). Ethanol would allow these profits to go straight to
Ethanol is a clean, renewable fuel made from plant material. Ethanol is cleaner than gasoline because it contains more oxygen. The added oxygen increases ethanol's octane rating. The octane rating is the fuel's ability to resist “knock”. Ethanol has a higher octane rating than gasoline. Ethanol above fifteen percent can damage vehicles that are designed to run on gasoline. An ethanol/gasoline (E10) blend is cheaper than just gasoline. The blend does reduce fuel economy by up to 3.3 percent. Car companies have started to produce flex-fuel vehicles. These flex-fuel vehicles can run on fuel with up to 85 percent ethanol. The main problem is
...her combination of intoxicant. There are several better plants to use, sugar cane and algae all produce far more ethanol than corn does. Keep in mind that running on electric sometimes is better than running on gas all of the time, But to see for yourself go down to the car dealership and ask for yourself.
Today, the world’s ethanol is primarily produced in Brazil using sugarcane. The second largest producer of ethanol is the United States, where it is created from corn. Ethanol has the largest production mass of all the biofuels (Powlson, Riche, and Shield, 2005). In 2003 Brazil produced 9.9 million tons, as compared to 8.4 million tons produced by the United States, and 1.75 million tons produced in Europe (Malca and Freire, 2006).
As the number toxin spewing cars rises, pollution has presented itself as a major problem in urban areas. There have been many solutions presented to help solve this problem, but few have been widely accepted by the general public. I believe the pollution problem is one that cannot be solved in one big step, but in smaller steps. I see Ethanol use as one of those steps. The intention of this proposal is to recommend an approach that would lead to widespread use of ethanol.
...s that the fermentation leading to the creation of ethanol has made billions and billions of dollars in profit, along with giving millions of people jobs. It is amazing that something that has had such a large impact on the world (as the fermentation of ethanol has) begins on the molecular level.
Some of the ways we try to combat Climate Change differes from region to region and culure to culture. One of the remedies that seems to be adapting all around the world is the use of biofuels instead of using fossil fuels. People believe that instead of digging up and using oil and petroleum, our best solution to combat greenhouse gases emitted by fossil fuels is to plant soybeans, sugar cane, palm oil and use that as a replacement. More cars are flex fuled, and use ethenol mixed with petroleum to lessen the use of oil since oil prices are only going to increase with the decreasing amount that is
...sues with environmental concerns with mining and smelting, the economic issue is one of them that tops the list. Something needs to be done to drive the cost of environmental control equipment down. Should this be how the equipment is manufactured differently, made more efficiently, or created with lower cost material.