Ethanol as Fuel

Ethanol as Fuel

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Ethanol as Fuel
 

 

Did you know? Ethanol is primarily used as fuel in gasoline engines

 

 
Ethanol is not plant oil, but is an alcohol that is primarily derived from sugarcane molasses, as well as from corn (primarily in the US), but is included here for completeness.

 
In theory, ethanol can be produced from a range of plants, such as barley, wheat, rice, sorghum, sunflower, potatoes, sugar cane, sugar beet, and corn. Currently however, a large share of ethanol is produced from corn (US) & sugar cane/sugar beet (rest of the world).

 
As a transportation fuel, ethanol can be used as a total or partial replacement for gasoline. Gasoline containing ten percent ethanol - E10 - is used in many urban areas of the US. Some states promote more widespread use of E10. All vehicles that run on gasoline can use E10 without making changes to their engines.

 
E85 is an alternative fuel that is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. In order to run on E85, vehicles are specially manufactured as flexible fuel vehicles (FFV). Flexible Fuel Vehicles (Flexible Fuel Vehicle Info from Fuel Economy, from Wikipedia) can use any mixture of ethanol and gasoline up to E85. FFV's have been designed for versatility.  They will operate on unleaded gasoline or any mixture of gasoline and ethanol up to an 85 percent blend.

 
Ethanol, when used as a gasoline component, improves combustion and reduces carbon monoxide emissions.

 
Brazil (The Brazilian Ethanol Program – University of Rio de Janeiro – PDF, Ethanol in Brazil - Wikipedia) and Sweden (Why is Ethanol Given Importance over Methanol in Sweden – A Research Paper – PDF) use significant quantities of ethanol as a fuel.  Some Canadian provinces promote ethanol (Ethanol – from Canadian Renewable Fuels Association) use as a fuel by offering subsidies.  India is in the beginning stages of initiating the use of ethanol as an automotive fuel (Ethanol India). In France, ethanol is produced from grapes that are of insufficient quality for wine production.

 Brazil has been one of the pioneering countries in the context of using ethanol in gasoline engines. Brazilian ethanol is made mainly from sugar cane (Sugarcane for Energy – PDF).  Prompted by the increase in oil prices in the 1970's, Brazil introduced a program to produce ethanol for use in automobiles. A significant percentage of automobiles in Brazil used pure ethanol (100% ethanol). The remaining vehicles use blends of about 20% ethanol with 80% gasoline.

 Ethanol Diesel - E-diesel

 While the main use of ethanol is in gasoline engines, in a few cases ethanol is also used in diesel engines. More research is underway on this concept of Ethanol Diesel – E-diesel. E-diesel is usually a a blend of up 15% ethanol, 5% blending additive, and at least 80% petro-diesel. Testing to date has proven that E-diesel can lower particulate emissions by 20% to 30%, reduce sulfur content, and out-perform No. 2 diesel fuel in winter conditions, all without mechanical changes or problems. Additional research is under way to move E-diesel toward commercialization (About E-diesel Fuel – from E-diesel Fuel Consortium)

More Ethanol Links & Resources

·         Ethanol Marketplace

·         Ethanol in India

·         Ethanol Boosted Gasoline Engines – from MIT, Boston (PDF)

·         Simple Introduction to Ethanol as Bio-fuel – from EIA Energy Kids Page

·         Resources for Ethanol as Fuel – Free Energy News

·         Ethanol Resources Online – from Journey to Forever

·         Ethanol Page – from Canadian Agricultural Energy End-use

·         Biofuel & Ethanol Article from the Economist

·         Ethanol & Bio-fuel Facts – from Cecarf

·         Ethanol Production Using Corn, Switchgrass & Wood (PDF)

·         Eucalyptus Biomass Fuels – Price Competitive or Way off the Money? (PDF)

·         Ethanol Info from Canadian Renewable Fuels Association

·         Ethanol Facts – from Iowa Corn

·         Ethanol Research Breakthrough – Wood Feedstock

·         Sustainability of the Corn-Ethanol Biofuel Cycle (PDF)

·         Ethanol & Methanol as Bio-fuels for ICEs – Envocare, UK (see their Alternative Energy & Renewable Energy Sources Page for more resources)

·         Ethanol for Fuel Fundamentally Uneconomic, Says Study

 Ethanol & Biodiesel – Compare & Contrast

 ·         Ethanol & Biodiesel – North Dakota Renewable Energy Summit (PDF)

·         Ethanol & Biodiesel – Questions & Answers – Office of Research, State of Tennessee (PDF)

·         IEA Bioenergy Task – Final Summary Report – Liquid Biofuels

·         Ethanol Vs Biodiesel – from Renewable Energy Generation

·         Ethanol vs Biodiesel vs Gasoline – the Environment Forum

Fun Facts – The Gasoline-ethanol blend is also called gasohol

 

 Other References

Some interesting sites:

  • Plant Oils Database – provides resources and links for over 200 different plant oils and related plant extracts
  • BDPedia – The Biodiesel WWW Encyclopedia

 Agriculture Directories

 Crops

 BDPedia.com, the Biodiesel WWW Encyclopedia, provides links, provides directory and web links resources for the biofuels, biodiesel. It is intended to be useful for research and information as well as for buyers, sellers, manufacturers, traders, suppliers, producers, exporters and importers. It will make an effort to provide biofuel feedstock, plant oil feedstocks, vegetable oil info and link, details on oilseeds, bio-fuel, bio-diesel, bio-fuels, plant oils production and uses, and biofuels trade & market resources, data, statistics such as price, prices, demand-supply for buyer, seller, manufacturer, trader, supplier, exporter and producer

GeoDig – Get Local!

Have you checked out the GeoDig directories for over 30 countries? GeoDig provides useful local and regional web resources for over 200 cities around the world. See the list of cities and countries for which GeoDig provides locality-specific web resources.

North America

USA - Alabama (AL) > Birmingham; Alaska; Arkansas (AR) > Little Rock; Arizona (AZ) > Phoenix, Las Vegas, Tucson; California (CA) > Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield; Colorado, CO > Denver; Connecticut, CT > Hartford; District of Columbia, DC > Washington DC; Delaware (DE) > Wilmington; Florida > Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Orlando, Sarasota, West Palm Beach, Jacksonville; Georgia > Atlanta; Hawaii > Honolulu; Idaho; Illinois > Chicago; Indiana > Indianapolis; Iowa; Kansas (KS); Kentucky (KY) > Louisville; Louisiana (LA) > New Orleans, Baton Rouge; Maine; Maryland (MD) > Baltimore; Massachusetts > Boston, Springfield; Michigan > Detroit, Grand Rapids; Minnesota > Minneapolis-St. Paul; Mississippi (MS); Missouri (MO) > Kansas City, St. Louis; Montana; Nebraska (NE) > Omaha; Nevada (NV) > Las Vegas; New Hampshire; New Jersey (NJ) > Jersey City, Newark; New Mexico (NM) > Albuquerque; New York > New York, Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Syracuse; North Carolina (NC) > Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte, Greensboro; North Dakota; Ohio> Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, Youngstown, Dayton; Oklahoma (OK) > Oklahoma City, Tulsa; Oregon > Portland; Pennsylvania > Philadelphia, Allentown, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Scranton, ; Rhode Island (RI) > Providence; South Carolina (SC) > Greenville; South Dakota; Tennessee (TN) > Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville; Texas > Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Austin, McAllen; Utah (UT) > Salt Lake City; Vermont; Virginia (VA) > Norfolk, Richmond; Washington > Seattle; West Virginia; Wisconsin (WI) > Milwaukee; Wyoming
Canada - Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa-Gatineau, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg, Hamilton, London

 Europe - UK - London, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leicester; France - Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Nice, Nantes, Strasbourg, Montpellier, Bordeaux; Germany - Frankfurt (Frankfurt am Main), Munich (München), Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Cologne (Köln), Essen, Dortmund, Stuttgart, Bremen, Duisburg, Hannover, Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Dresden, Leipzig; Italy - Milan (Milano), Rome (Roma), Napoli (Naples), Torino (Turin), Palermo, Bologna, Firenze (Florence), Genova (Genoa); Spain - Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Malaga, Murcia, Las Palmas, Bilbao; Scandinavia - Finland - Helsinki (Helsingin), Espoo, Tampere (Tampereen), Vantaa, Turku, Oulu, Sweden - Stockholm, Goteborg (Göteborg), Malmo (Malmö), Uppsala, Vasteras (Västerås), Denmark - Copenhagen (Københavns), Aarhus (Århus), Odense, Aalborg (Ålborg), Norway - Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger, Trondheim; Benelux - Belgium - Brussels (Brussel), Antwerp (Antwerpen), Ghent (Gent, Gand), Charleroi, Liège (Liege), Netherlands - Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Tilburg, ‘s-Gravenhage (sGravenhage), Groningen, Luxembourg - Luxembourg City; Portugal – Lisbon; Greece – Athens; Hungary – Budapest; Poland – Warsaw; Switzerland - Zürich (Zurich), Geneva (Geneve, Genève), Basel, Bern (Berne), Lausanne; Austria - Linz, Vienna (Wien), Graz, Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck; Ireland – Dublin

Asia - India - Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore; China & Hong Kong - Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Wuhan, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Harbin, Xian; Japan - Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Nagoya, Sapporo, Kyoto, Kobe, Fukuoka, Kawasaki, Hiroshima; South Korea - Seoul, Pusa, Taegu, Incheon, Taejeon, Taiwan - Taipei; Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur; Singapore; Russia - Moscow, St Petersburg

Middle East - Turkey - Istanbul, Israel - Tel Aviv

Oceania - Australia - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide

Africa - South Africa - Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban