A Look at Ethanol Fuel

Ethanol is alternative fuel

Ethanol fuels are alternative for gasoline. If you take a look in the history, they were being used since 1979. At first, car manufactures did not approve the use of this type of fuel. After some time, they did start to test the car engines for use with e85 ethanol fuel, so eventually, they have approved the use of 10 percent ethanol fuels. Some did not just adjust their engines for this fuel, but they even recommended it for use in their vehicles. If your car is manufactured before the year of 1970, you should not use these fuels due to damage it can cause, before you (or your mechanic presumably) makes all the required adjustments.

Let us consider some advantages and disadvantage of these alternative fuels. They are renewable, safe and they can be used with cars (only few modifications are needed on the engine). The farmers also have economic benefits, since the sugar beets, corn and maize are used in the production. The fuel is also environmental friendly and it can be produced in any country, so these countries will have less dependence on oil towards oil producing nations. Although these are great benefits, there are also disadvantages that must not pass unattended. The cost of their production is high and more research is needed. Their power efficiency is less as opposed with gasoline, meaning the car will need greater amount of fuel for passing the same mileage. This will bring additional costs for the end-user. Since the crops are used within ethanol production process, it needs many crops to be cultivated, so this brings the need for large lands. It is also questionable to use the food for gas, especially when knowing that there are millions of people starving today. As final, the waste that comes as a result of production is toxic.

Regardless of the vast amount of information regarding various alternative fuels, there are still some mechanics and people within this branch who do not recommend e85 ethanol. This is often noticed when your engine breaks down and the first question you hear is “did you use ethanol”. You must only not use ethanol as a diesel fuel, since the two do not mix.
We did mention that ethanol fuels are environmental friendly, but this should be further discussed. Regardless of many researches and studies, it is still not clear that ethanol fuel is completely environmental friendly. There are also doubts whether this friendliness is as high as is described by supporters and manufacturers of ethanol fuels. It is not the doubt about the fuel itself, but rather about the needed resources for its production, since it can turn to be potentially dangerous for the rainforests, forests and all the areas where corn (mainly used for ethanol production) is supposed to grow. Regardless of this, the interest for this fuel is increasing, mainly because it is cheap alternative for the gasoline. Although not related directly with this article, we can mention at last that you can even drink it, even get drunk but it can also cause (large quantities) damage to your liver (as any other alcohol after all).