It’s a widely accepted fact that the Earth only has a limited amount of oil reserves, and that they are running out relatively quickly. While nobody really knows when they will expire, you can be sure that unless we are prepared for when it happens, they’ll be some tough times ahead. It’s obvious we need some kind of alternative energy. Unfortunately, with what we’ve developed so far, if oil were to run out tomorrow, the world would be plunged into chaos.
Many people believe that ethanol may indeed replace gasoline someday. Ethanol is a chemical that is similar to alcohol, and can be made from grains, like corn. An ethanol based engine has many advantages of a gasoline based engine. But there are also some problems to consider. If you’ve ever wondered about using ethanol for fuel, then this article can help. I’ll go over some the basic pros and cons, so we can be better prepared for the future.
For many reasons, corn is the most desired crop to make ethanol from. Generally, it gives the best yield per acre. The main benefit of using ethanol is that it is renewable. That means from the same patch of dirt, you can keep growing corn year after year that can be turned into fuel for engines. That small piece of dirt can be the source of unlimited fuel.
Another clear benefit of using ethanol is that it is clean burning. Zero emissions. No greenhouse gasses, no carbon emissions, no impact on global warming. The idea of an unlimited, clean burning source of fuel almost seems good to be true. Is it?
Sadly, we’re not quite there yet. As it stands now, creating ethanol takes time and energy. The corn has to be planted, grown, fertilized, harvested, and converted into ethanol. For one gallon of ethanol to be created, it takes about a gallon and a quarter of gasoline. If a business operated this way, they would quickly go broke.
Another major drawback is that for every acre of corn that is set aside for ethanol, that is one acre of farmland that is not being used to grow food. At with the capacity of the world’s farms just barely keeping up with the food demands of the world, setting aside thousands of acres to grow fuel doesn’t make much economic sense.
How to solve this problem? It’s clear that ethanol is still in the experimental stage. Until more than a gallon of ethanol can be produced with a gallon of gasoline, or even ethanol itself, no more than a few acres should be set aside for this experimental energy. The world food demands are much more important at this time.
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