There has been a great deal of talk about the promise of ethanol-based gasoline as an efficient renewable fuel; President Bush has pushed ethanol development in the U.S. recently, and Brazil is ready to cash in even more in this developing market. However, the production of ethanol consumes a great deal of energy, and releases its share of CO2 in the atmosphere (more about this to come).
Further, an article today in the San Francisco Chronicle highlighted a study released by atmospheric scientists at Stanford University concerning some other important risks associated with large scale ethanol production and consumption.
The study shows a significant projected rise in ozone-related deaths, as ethanol (specifically E85) is NOT a low carbon fuel and its byproducts when it is combusted pose serious threats, especially in urban areas. **ethanol releases ozone, as well as formaldehyde, ormaldehyde and acetaldehyde, plus benzene and butadiene** All of these are carcinogens (you may recognize the chemical formaldehyde as a preserving agent seen in many labs – one that you’re not encouraged to ingest for long amounts of time!).
A great deal of our greenhouse gas emitting behavior stems from transportation. It seems that ethanol is not the best choice for large scale public and private investment; we may do better to pursue fuel cells and other electric means of transportation that can ultimately be powered by renewable sources such as wind and solar – to reduce our dependence on nonrenewable, polluting resources as much as possible.
April 22, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Several years ago I was part of a racing project using ethanol as fuel. We learned alot… It worked quite nicely, very nice power with less of a desire to overheat. On the downsides, it required twice the amount of fuel to be competive. We used the weight to hold the front of the car down. What might the price of ethanol be? At twice the consumption? Not to mention the impact on food prices.
Another downside, the emitions. Whyle the truth of the matter is that the auto industry has done a fine job in eliminating MOST harmfull emitions from current models, it is limited by the testing equipment capabilitys. We still can’t measure sulfer in auto exhaust gasses, for instance. Using ethanol as fuel produces many terrible gasses, such as formaldihide, as in imbalming fluid. How on earth can we be expected to regulate this?
Where are the standards? Where are the methods of monitering?
One might think of ethanol as a wonderfull chemical, but a lousy fuel.