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The Planet Needs Focus On Ethanol

Alternative fuels are racing to the forefront of research and development teams. The planet is faced with a double edged sword today and in the future. On the one hand we have global warming and evidence supports the emissions from fossil fuel engines is a key contributor to the greenhouse effect. Adding to the compounding problem is the population. Our global population is growing out of control. In most areas of explosive growth there is weak to no infrastructure. Translate this into governments scrambling to feed, house and provide jobs for their populations you have a real domino effect on our ability to manage the fundamental thirst for more fossil fuels while balancing the ecological effects on Global Warming as a serious problem for future generations.

Ethanol fuel is on biofuel alternative to gasoline. Today it can be combined with gasoline in many degrees of concentration all the way to pure ethanol. Anhydrous ethanol, that is, ethanol with no more than 1% water, can also be blended with gasoline to reduce the consumption of petroleum fuels and in attempts to reduce the overall air pollution growth throughout the globe. Across the globe, automotive ethanol potential varies and most spark-ignited gasoline style engines will operate well with mixtures of at least 10% ethanol.
In Brazil, where they faced severe shortages of natural resources and thus turned to alternative fuels way ahead of most nations, ethanol-powered and flexible-fuel vehicles are on the roads today given their early adoption rate to solve their internal growth needs and future industrial raw resource needs. With innovative flexible-fuel systems, like Hi-Flex, used by Renault Clio and Fiat Siena, can also run with pure gasoline.

Today, in the USA, ethanol is being mass-produced by fermentation of sugar or by hydration of ethylene from petroleum and other sources. Current research and private interest in ethanol lies in production derived from crops (bio-ethanol), and there's ongoing discussion about whether this is a sustainable energy resource that may produce environmental and long-term economic advantages over fossil fuels, like gasoline or diesel. These are huge question marks as it also relates to production capabilities of our Food System in our farmland.

It is readily obtained from the starch or sugar in a wide variety of crops. Ethanol fuel production depends on availability of land area, soil, water, and sunlight which today the USA is well poised to exploit towards this effort. There is currently a lot of debate about how useful bio-ethanol will be in replacing fossil fuels in vehicles. One research paper in the UK suggested that to replace 5% of fuel used in the UK with bio-ethanol would require 20% of the UKs arable land, thus a serious issue when it comes to investing in bio-ethanol as a true replacement for the current fossil fuel dilemma.

In 2004, approximately 42 billion liters of ethanol were produced in the world with the majority of it being for use in cars. Brazil produced around 16.4 billion liters and used 2.7 million hectares of land area for this production 4.5% of the Brazilian land area used for crop production in 2005. Of this, around 12.4 billion liters were produced as fuel for ethanol-powered vehicles in the domestic market. These numbers are aging now and more development and refined technology could greatly enhance the yield being seen over time.

Do we have a choice? Of course we do. But now we have a timing problem. The growth in China alone (population) is going to tip the supply curve of fossil fuel at a rapid pace. As the nation struggles to build out its infrastructure they will place increasing demands on the global community to corner the supply market. The US must act now and signs are surfacing that this is turning aggressively.

Renewable & Alternative Energy Resources: http://www.alternativeenergybase.com

For more information on the author please write at info@planetberries. com or visit their corporate web site at www.planetberries.com located in the USA.

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