Is Ethanol Truly A Practical Alternative?
Most people recognize the simple fact that there is only a certain amount of oil reserves in the planet. And anything that is in limited supply is certain to run out sooner or later. Because all societies are so dependent on oil, if oil ran out before a sufficient alternative was created, there would be bedlam and chaos. The good news is that there are plenty of alternative energy sources being investigated. The bad news is that many of them are years away from fully replacing oil completely.
While there are plenty of energy sources being currently researched, one hopeful contender is ethanol. Ethanol is similar chemically to gasoline, so an ethanol based engine would give about the same horse power as a gasoline based engine. Although there are several good reasons to use ethanol, there are several drawbacks as well. In this article I’ll talk about the pros and cons of using ethanol.
The most desirable grain to use to make ethanol from is corn. Corn has the best yield, and can create the most ethanol per acre. The biggest benefit to using ethanol is that it is purely renewable, meaning that any farmer can grow corn year after year for ethanol, without worrying about running out. One single piece of farmland can easily be turned into an unlimited source for fuel to run the world’s engines.
One more powerful benefit of using ethanol as our main source of fuel is that it is clean burning. No carbon emissions, no pollution, no greenhouse gasses. Is it really possible to have an unlimited supply of clean burning energy?
Unfortunately, at this point in time, it is. The major drawback to creating ethanol from fields of corn is that in order to plant, harvest, and transform the corn into ethanol, gasoline powered equipment is required. And with current technology, on average, it takes about a gallon and a half of gasoline to produce one gallon of ethanol. This is clearly a losing proposition.
The second major drawback to using ethanol is that for every acre of ethanol producing corn that is grown, that’s one less acre of food producing corn. The world’s farms are just barely able to keep up with demand as it is. It doesn’t make much economic sense to set aside thousands of acres to grow ethanol when the need for food is just barely being met.
What’s the best thing to do now? It’s clear that it’s going to take more research and development until ethanol is a viable energy replacement. After scientists and farmers can break even, so they can produce more than a gallon of ethanol with a gallon of gasoline, ethanol shouldn’t be considered out of the experimental stage. However, the world food demands must also be taken into consideration, and tough decisions must be made.
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