About eco-friendly fuel…..?
Would the cars and environment benefit if from now on, all cars used fuel that contained at least 15% ethanol (Bioethanol, unlike petroleum, is a form of renewable energy that can be produced from agricultural feedstocks. It can be made from very common crops such as sugar cane, potato, manioc and corn. Wikipedia)?
I’m not good with cars, so i was just curious as to whether this would be a good idea.
It is an interesting question.
One of the issues is the effect on food production. The amount of vegetable matter involved is HUGE, and represents a significant diversion of crops from food, making some things scarce and very expensive. What seems to be a much better approach, is to used non-food crops in marginal land areas, and using enzymatic processes to release the sugar (the actual substrate for ethanol.
This is the subject of intense research.
Also, ethanol is very corrosive. This would require some changes to most vehicles. There was recently a problem in California with boats, where they add ethanol, that dissolved certain plastic parts and causing engines to fail. This issue is not prohibitive, but requires thought.
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