Ethanol As A Fuel
Q. I was hoping you could help me answer a question. Can a regular car engine, say a 1993 Volkswagen Van, run on 100% Ethanol?
If so, why do we not use more of it. Here in Colorado, we have a law that says from Nov 1 to Feb 1 we must use gas with at least 10% ethanol. It burns cleaner and Denver is in a big bowl valley. We get a lot of smog days if the wind is not blowing the smog out of the bowl!
So, if we can burn 10% ethanol, why not more? And why not now, with the number of gas guzzling Suburban's out there with owners whining about the price of gas?
Anyway, any help you can give is appreciated.
Ginny
A. Ginny, I'm glad you asked that question. There's been a lot of questions about the use of ethanol blended fuels in the last couple of years and I have done some research into it. Here in Minnesota 10% ethanol has been mandatory for over two years and I have not seen any adverse problems to car engines due to it's use.
First of all, what is ethanol? Fuel ethanol (or 'Gasohol') is a high octane, water-free alcohol produced from the fermentation of sugar or converted starch. It is traditionally used as a blending ingredient at 5% to 10% concentrations (termed E5 or E10, respectively) in gasoline or as a raw material to produce high octane fuel ether additives. Ethanol is made primarily from grains or other renewable agricultural and agroforestry feedstocks.
Ethanol has been made since ancient times by the fermentation of sugars. All beverage ethanol and more than half of industrial ethanol is still made by this process. Simple sugars are the raw material. Zymase, an enzyme from yeast, changes the simple sugars into ethanol and carbon dioxide. If you use hops instead of corn, you get beer instead of fuel.
The use of ethanol does provide some benefits. First of all it is renewable. The problem with crude oil is when it's gone, it's gone. No more, finished, kaput, finis. 1 acre corn = 300 gallons of Ethanol and 400 gallons of unneeded oil imports. Ethanol is made from corn and other grown grains and when was the last time you saw a year where there wasn't any corn around? Since it contains a high amount of oxygen it makes a car engine cleaner burning resulting in a cleaner environment for us to live in. Carbon dioxide emissions are lower thus reducing ground level ozone which people with respiratory problems will be the first to tell you is a problem.
The emissions produced by burning ethanol are less reactive with sunlight than those produced by burning gasoline. This results in a lower potential for damaging the ozone layer. The use of ethanol reduces our dependance on imported oil and increases the market for farmers who grow the grains we use to produce ethanol. Now we can stop paying farmers not grow crops and use their excess production as fuel.
Of course there are some by-products of ethanol production that have to be dealt with. By-products such as corn flour, corn oil, corn meal and corn grits. Other by-products are animal feeds such as Fibrotein TM, corn gluten meal and feed and certain amino acids. Carbon dioxide is another by-product in ethanol production and is used as a refrigerant and putting the fizz in our sodas. There are no waste products when ethanol is produced from corn.
It is possible, with certain engine modifications, to run on pure ethanol. Brazil operates almost 50% of their vehicles on pure ethanol. A 10% blend requires no engine modifications at all. There is a very limited selection of vehicles offered by original equipment manufacturers that will run on 85% ethanol blended fuel.
Car owners are concerned about what effects ethanol will have on their engines and fuel systems, a valid concern. Let me take this a step at a time.
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