Ethanol fuel is changing our lives and changing the economy
in ways no one anticipated before, with energy costs rising every day, there
has been an increased interest in ethanol fuel. Ethanol is a variety of alcohol
that can be produced in a natural fashion, similar to the way in which
alcoholic beverages are produced. Ethanol can be used by itself in some
specially designed vehicles, but it can also be used as a fuel additive,
stretching traditional fuels in times of economic or environmental hardship.
Ethanol is used today by more people ever before, simply because of the cheap
alternative to the soaring gas prices.
Using ethanol fuel as an alternative to gas does require
motorists to get a special ethanol kit and install it in their cars, but since
gas prices have been unstable in the last years many people feel that making
that kind of investment will prove financially profitable in the future.
Ethanol fuel that is derived from crops has advantages over
traditional fossil fuels. The ethanol fuel is obtained from the sugars and
starches in crops like corn and grains. It also burns cleaner than petroleum
based fuels due to its chemical composition, alleviating some of the strain
placed on the environment by exhaust emissions. The increased consumption of
corn for ethanol use has already started to affect the corn farms projections
of yearly crops.
Blended ethanol fuel has proven to be an effective source of
energy for several parts of the country, as well as other parts of the globe.
E10 is a typical mixture. It is common in the Midwestern United States. Many
other countries around the world start to consider using ethanol instead of
regular fuel, Denmark for example, has also begun using this type of ethanol
fuel. It appears to be doing well, though its use is not as extensive as many
of its proponents had hoped it would be. There is still a long way for ethanol
to become a natural option for fuel, the United States had used ethanol fuel
for less than one percent of its gasoline needs in the year 2002.
The other big issue surrounding ethanol is the environmental
issue, it is still not absolutely clear that ethanol is in fact environment
friendly, and whether the environmental aspects of ethanol fuel are as good as
they have been previously described by the supporters of ethanol fuel use. The
growing concern is that while the use of ethanol by itself may be good for the
environment, the resources and work done to provide the production of the
ethanol could be potentially dangerous for the forests, rainforests and areas
where the corn and other ethanol producing resources are being grown. While it
is true that the fuel can be made from renewable resources there is evidence
that some rainforests are actually being cleared to make space for crops that
are used in the production of ethanol. As the controversy regarding the
production of ethanol and its dangers, it is very clear that this alternative
source of energy is becoming more and more popular.
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