Ethanol Used as Motor Fuel

Ethanol is also referred to as ethyl alcohol and its chemical formula is C2H5OH. Ethanol is a chemical component of alcoholic beverages however it can also be used to make fuel for cars. There are many countries that have used Ethanol as motor fuel including the United States. In order to use Ethanol as motor fuel it is mixed in with normal petroleum at 5 to 10 percent concentration. Different states in the US have adopted Ethanol as a gasoline component replacing methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). One of the states is California. A high majority of petroleum supplied to California contains 6%ethanol. Flexible fuel vehicles (FFV’s) have started using E85 fuel where by 85% of it is Ethanol while the remaining is gasoline. These vehicles are built with special fuel systems components that are compatible with high concentrations o Ethanol. 

In the corn producing states of the Midwest E85 is the most common ethanol mixture. Small aircrafts are also replacing the leaded form of gasoline used in aviation with #-Diesel that is Ethanol blended with diesel fuel. Ethanol is known to contain lower energy as compared to gasoline. This basically means about a third more in volume of Ethanol is used to travel the same distance as with gasoline. This is estimated to be around one third more. The octane rating of Ethanol is also high Ethanol resulting in vehicles increasing their engine efficiency as well as performance. In the United States all vehicles that use gasoline can accept gasoline that has up to 10 percent ethanol also referred as gasohol. When gasoline is blended with low percentage ethanol it results in increase of vapor pressure; leading to the process of fuel formulation adjusting and/or controlling with vehicle systems.  

The basic ingredient for ethanol is corn. Corn is processed through fermentation and distillation processes in the production of ethanol as well as animal feeds. Ethanol production is done in 20 American states, mostly Midwestern states and they include Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa just but to name a few. The world’s largest ethanol producer is Brazil which produces ethanol using sugarcane as the raw material. Brazil’s vehicles use 10 percent ethanol. Research and development efforts all around the world have been trying to find out a way of doing ethanol production from forestry, agricultural and wastes and residues from municipals. California is planning production of ethanol in the future using sugar cane and ultimately residual feed stocks and other types of waste. This will be done as soon as knowhow and technology to process the material is available commercially.  

As compared to other petroleum fuels, the cost of ethanol production is relatively high. However, there is a continuing process with both advanced and conventional technology for the production of ethanol that could result in the cost of ethanol production being competitive with that of petroleum fuels. Ethanol reduces the harmful green house gasses into the environment. New cars are being produce with very low amounts of these green house gases. Ethanol is transported by rail tank locally but in the case of imports it is transported by marine vessels. In order to prevent in take by humans federal regulations have it so that ethanol be produced for fuel use where they add denaturant (usually gasoline) before it is shipped.

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