Ethanol is an alternative fuel option that can be made by fermenting and distilling starch that has been converted into simple sugars. Anything from corn and wheat to biomass, which is basically waste plant material, can be used to produce ethanol. Since ethanol can be produced entirely from plant sources it is a renewable energy source. Ethanol can also be combined with gasoline to make E85, which is 85 percent ethanol, or E95, which is 95 percent ethanol. Both of these fuels are considered to be alternative fuels under the Energy Policy Act of 1992.
Ethanol powered vehicles have many advantages over gasoline-powered vehicles. Since ethanol has a higher hydrogen to carbon ratio than gasoline, it produces less greenhouse gasses than gasoline. Furthermore, where gasoline must for the most part be imported from abroad, ethanol can be produced from corn and biomass, which are abundant in the U.S. As a result, by switching over to ethanol the U.S. can finally reduce its dependence on overseas oil. Between 1978 and 2005, Brazil was able to reduce its dependence on oil from about 85 percent to nearly 0 percent by switching over to ethanol-powered vehicles, according to Brazilian officials. Following the precedent set by Brazil, the U.S. could easily reduce its oil consumption and finally become energy independent. And ethanol costs about the same amount as gasoline per gallon and as gasoline prices continue to rise ethanol could soon become cheaper than gasoline.
Ethanol offers many distinct advantages over hydrogen power as well. First, the production of ethanol creates much less pollution than the production of hydrogen in a country where a large percentage of its power is produced by fossil fuels. In the U.S., nearly 90 percent of electricity is produced by fossil fuel burning power plants. Furthermore, many of the nuclear power plants in the U.S. will soon be out of commission; as a result, it is likely that the reliance on fossil fuels in the U.S. will increase even further. Making ethanol from plant sources creates about 200 times less pollution than producing an equivalent amount of electricity in a fossil fuel power plant. Moreover, the production of hydrogen using electricity is only 70 percent efficient. As a result, in the U.S. making ethanol creates much less pollution as a byproduct than making hydrogen. While ethanol may not be a perfectly "clean" energy source, it certainly creates less pollution than either gasoline or hydrogen would, given our current electricity production capacities.
Second, ethanol can be stored and transported much more efficiently than hydrogen. Ethanol exists naturally as a liquid, while hydrogen exists naturally as a gas. Consequently, more ethanol can be stored in a smaller space than hydrogen. In fact, trying to store hydrogen effectively has been a significant hurdle for those trying to develop hydrogen cars. Even those who have tried to store hydrogen as a compressed gas, metal hydride, have had limited success. This problem does not exist for ethanol powered cars because ethanol can be stored in the exact same way as gasoline. Unlike hydrogen, which would most likely need to be produced on site due to its lack of transportability, ethanol could be mass produced at another site more efficiently and then be transported to fuel stations.
Third, it is less costly to implement ethanol as an alternative power source than it would be to implement hydrogen power. To create a hydrogen economy, hydrogen cars would have to be researched further, hydrogen fuel stations and production plants would have to be built and more effective hydrogen storage systems would have to be created. All of this infrastructure would cost billions of dollars and would take a significant amount of time to implement. Current gas stations could easily be converted to supply ethanol or could supply ethanol in addition to gasoline similarly to how many gas stations have diesel pumps along with gasoline pumps. There are also already many "flex-fuel" cars on the road that can run on either gasoline or ethanol. GM and Ford have been producing these cars since the 1980's to get a government subsidy but have not advertised it because they did not believe it would affect consumer's decisions on whether or not to buy the cars. Today, there are over 1.5 million "flex-fuel" cars on the road and GM and Ford have plants that could easily produce more if the demand for "flex-fuel" cars increased.
Ethanol is an excellent alternative energy source for the U.S. to look towards in the coming years. It is cleaner than gasoline and costs the same amount per gallon. Ethanol can be produced from corn and biomass produced in the U.S. and can consequently reduce American dependence on foreign oil for energy. Less pollution is created producing ethanol than producing hydrogen, given the high percentage of electricity produced by fossil fuels in the U.S. Furthermore, an ethanol infrastructure would be much easier to implement than a hydrogen one, especially as GM and Ford have already produced millions of "flex-fuel" cars that can run on either ethanol or gasoline and could easily produce many more. And ethanol doesn't just have to power our cars. It can heat our homes, power our lights and much more. Hydrogen may be the alternative fuel of the future, but ethanol is the alternative fuel of today.
Barbieri can be reached at
jbarbieri08@amherst.edu