11-20-2015, 04:48 PM
The other night my buddy and I were discussing the many issues with ethanol gasoline and he says didn't know why it's even put into gasoline. Well below is what I found out from the EPA site.
Why is there ethanol in gasoline?
Congress established standards under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 designed to encourage the blending of renewable fuels into our nation's motor vehicle fuel supply. Congress strengthened the renewable fuels program under the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 to include specific annual volume standards for total renewable fuel and also for the specific renewable fuel categories of cellulosic biofuel, biomass-based diesel, and advanced biofuel. (EISA aims to move the United States toward greater energy independence and security and increase the production of renewable fuels.) The revised statutory requirements also include new criteria for both renewable fuels and for the feedstocks used to produce them, including reductions in lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions over the fuels they are replacing. Congress directed EPA to develop and implement regulations to ensure that, over time, transportation fuel sold in the United States makes up a minimum volume of renewable fuel in the transportation fuel pool. Although ethanol blending is not required, just about all refiners are adding 10% ethanol to gasoline (E10) in order to meet the renewable fuel requirements. However, there is no prohibition on a refiner continuing to offer a grade of ethanol-free gasoline for use in lawn and garden equipment, boats, etc.
Then I did a little more digging (not much actually) and found this great article that summarizes the Ethanol questions:
Ethanol fuel from corn faulted as 'unsustainable subsidized food burning' in analysis by Cornell scientist Neither increases in government subsidies to corn-based ethanol fuel nor hikes in the price of petroleum can overcome what one Cornell University agricultural scientist calls a fundamental input-yield problem: It takes more energy to make ethanol from grain than the combustion of ethanol produces.
At a time when ethanol-gasoline mixtures (gasohol) are touted as the American answer to fossil fuel shortages by corn producers, food processors and some lawmakers, Cornell's David Pimentel takes a longer range view.
"Abusing our precious croplands to grow corn for an energy-inefficient process that yields lowgrade automobile fuel amounts to unsustainable, subsidized food burning," says the Cornell professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Pimentel, who chaired a U.S. Department of Energy panel that investigated the energetics, economics and environmental aspects of ethanol production several years ago, subsequently conducted a detailed analysis of
the corn-to-car fuel process. His findings will be published in September, 2001 in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Physical Sciences and Technology .
Among his findings are:
An acre of U.S. corn yields about 7,110 pounds of corn for processing into 328 gallons of ethanol. But planting, growing and harvesting that much corn requires about 140 gallons of fossil fuels and costs $347 per acre, according to Pimentel's analysis. Thus, even before corn is converted to ethanol, the feedstock costs $1.05 per gallon of ethanol.
The energy economics get worse at the processing plants, where the grain is crushed and fermented. As many as three distillation steps are needed to separate the 8 percent ethanol from the 92 percent water. Additional treatment and energy are required to produce the 99.8 percent pure ethanol for
mixing with gasoline. o Adding up the energy costs of corn production and its conversion to ethanol, 131,000 BTUs are needed to make 1 gallon of ethanol. One gallon of ethanol has an energy value of only 77,000 BTU. "Put another way," Pimentel says, "about 70 percent more energy is required to produce ethanol than the energy that actually is in ethanol. Every time you make 1 gallon of ethanol,
there is a net energy loss of 54,000 BTU."
Ethanol from corn costs about $1.74 per gallon to produce, compared with about 95 cents to produce a gallon of gasoline. "That helps explain why fossil fuels -- not ethanol -- are used to produce ethanol," Pimentel says. "The growers and processors can't afford to burn ethanol to make ethanol. U.S. drivers
couldn't afford it, either, if it weren't for government subsidies to artificially lower the price." Most economic analyses of corn-to-ethanol production overlook the costs of environmental damages, which Pimentel says should add another 23 cents per gallon. "Corn production in the U.S. erodes soil about 12 times faster than the soil can be reformed, and irrigating corn mines groundwater 25 percent faster than the natural recharge rate of ground water. The environmental
system in which corn is being produced is being rapidly degraded. Corn should not be considered a renewable resource for ethanol energy production, especially when human food is being converted into ethanol."
The approximately $1 billion a year in current federal and state subsidies (mainly to large corporations) for ethanol production are not the only costs to consumers, the Cornell scientist observes. Subsidized corn results in higher prices for meat, milk and eggs because about 70 percent of corn grain is fed to livestock and poultry in the United States Increasing ethanol production would inflate corn prices, Pimental says, nothing : "In addition to paying tax dollars for ethanol subsidies, consumers would be paying significantly higher food prices in the marketplace.
So this whole ethanol thing is not making any sense other than to provide a billion $$ a year to big corporations and drive up our food prices and give our vehicles worse gas mileage. How can we make this madness at least slow down?
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Why is there ethanol in gasoline?
Congress established standards under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 designed to encourage the blending of renewable fuels into our nation's motor vehicle fuel supply. Congress strengthened the renewable fuels program under the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 to include specific annual volume standards for total renewable fuel and also for the specific renewable fuel categories of cellulosic biofuel, biomass-based diesel, and advanced biofuel. (EISA aims to move the United States toward greater energy independence and security and increase the production of renewable fuels.) The revised statutory requirements also include new criteria for both renewable fuels and for the feedstocks used to produce them, including reductions in lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions over the fuels they are replacing. Congress directed EPA to develop and implement regulations to ensure that, over time, transportation fuel sold in the United States makes up a minimum volume of renewable fuel in the transportation fuel pool. Although ethanol blending is not required, just about all refiners are adding 10% ethanol to gasoline (E10) in order to meet the renewable fuel requirements. However, there is no prohibition on a refiner continuing to offer a grade of ethanol-free gasoline for use in lawn and garden equipment, boats, etc.
Then I did a little more digging (not much actually) and found this great article that summarizes the Ethanol questions:
Ethanol fuel from corn faulted as 'unsustainable subsidized food burning' in analysis by Cornell scientist Neither increases in government subsidies to corn-based ethanol fuel nor hikes in the price of petroleum can overcome what one Cornell University agricultural scientist calls a fundamental input-yield problem: It takes more energy to make ethanol from grain than the combustion of ethanol produces.
At a time when ethanol-gasoline mixtures (gasohol) are touted as the American answer to fossil fuel shortages by corn producers, food processors and some lawmakers, Cornell's David Pimentel takes a longer range view.
"Abusing our precious croplands to grow corn for an energy-inefficient process that yields lowgrade automobile fuel amounts to unsustainable, subsidized food burning," says the Cornell professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Pimentel, who chaired a U.S. Department of Energy panel that investigated the energetics, economics and environmental aspects of ethanol production several years ago, subsequently conducted a detailed analysis of
the corn-to-car fuel process. His findings will be published in September, 2001 in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Physical Sciences and Technology .
Among his findings are:
An acre of U.S. corn yields about 7,110 pounds of corn for processing into 328 gallons of ethanol. But planting, growing and harvesting that much corn requires about 140 gallons of fossil fuels and costs $347 per acre, according to Pimentel's analysis. Thus, even before corn is converted to ethanol, the feedstock costs $1.05 per gallon of ethanol.
The energy economics get worse at the processing plants, where the grain is crushed and fermented. As many as three distillation steps are needed to separate the 8 percent ethanol from the 92 percent water. Additional treatment and energy are required to produce the 99.8 percent pure ethanol for
mixing with gasoline. o Adding up the energy costs of corn production and its conversion to ethanol, 131,000 BTUs are needed to make 1 gallon of ethanol. One gallon of ethanol has an energy value of only 77,000 BTU. "Put another way," Pimentel says, "about 70 percent more energy is required to produce ethanol than the energy that actually is in ethanol. Every time you make 1 gallon of ethanol,
there is a net energy loss of 54,000 BTU."
Ethanol from corn costs about $1.74 per gallon to produce, compared with about 95 cents to produce a gallon of gasoline. "That helps explain why fossil fuels -- not ethanol -- are used to produce ethanol," Pimentel says. "The growers and processors can't afford to burn ethanol to make ethanol. U.S. drivers
couldn't afford it, either, if it weren't for government subsidies to artificially lower the price." Most economic analyses of corn-to-ethanol production overlook the costs of environmental damages, which Pimentel says should add another 23 cents per gallon. "Corn production in the U.S. erodes soil about 12 times faster than the soil can be reformed, and irrigating corn mines groundwater 25 percent faster than the natural recharge rate of ground water. The environmental
system in which corn is being produced is being rapidly degraded. Corn should not be considered a renewable resource for ethanol energy production, especially when human food is being converted into ethanol."
The approximately $1 billion a year in current federal and state subsidies (mainly to large corporations) for ethanol production are not the only costs to consumers, the Cornell scientist observes. Subsidized corn results in higher prices for meat, milk and eggs because about 70 percent of corn grain is fed to livestock and poultry in the United States Increasing ethanol production would inflate corn prices, Pimental says, nothing : "In addition to paying tax dollars for ethanol subsidies, consumers would be paying significantly higher food prices in the marketplace.
So this whole ethanol thing is not making any sense other than to provide a billion $$ a year to big corporations and drive up our food prices and give our vehicles worse gas mileage. How can we make this madness at least slow down?
[signature]