Oct 23 2008
Ethanol Fuel - what is it and who‘s mind process thinks ethanol production is a good idea?
Ethanol Fuel - what is it and who‘s mind process thinks ethanol production is a good idea?
If you see a car with a funny looking device on the back of it, it may be an ethanol running vehicle. The device is a flex-fuel designator which allows it to run on regular gas as well.
Ethanol is a biofuel which is a term used to describe any number of the new fuels coming out that are plant based renewable energy source. Ethanol, is no doubt, the biofuel you’ve heard the most about lately. It is constructed primarily of corn. However, some other countries have produced it with a base of sugar cane.
You have to wonder, though, how long a fuel made of a food matter can continue. As our economy continues in a down turn, food prices continue to sour (I think I’m paying about double at the grocery store as I did last year) and world hunger, won’t corn go up in price? Cattle and other animals we eat are fed corn and let’s not forget that people eat corn in many forms in many countries. If ethanol production is increased to the point of replacing or at least greatly reducing our need for foreign oil, in spite of our independence, won’t we just insert a whole new problem into our society? One without any corn to eat, will have to be replaced by something else.
And really, isn’t the production of ethanol fuel using coal, natural gas, and electricity (producing greenhouse gasses). And the production of ethanol actually puts as much carbon dioxide emissions into our air as fossil fuel production. In turn, we continue to increase global warming.
How can Ethanol fuel be the answer to our foreign fuel dependence when it continues to reek havoc with our earth’s bio-system? Of course vehicles and machinery running on water is not the answer as we can all see where that would go. But, a fuel made from garbage that wouldn’t hurt the environment when it was burned, now that would be a true answer.
