Ethanol:
Liquid Pork, Holy Water or Fields of Gold?
Group Members: Kris Hoff, Mike Elder and Xinkai Wu
Introduction |
The United States' increasing dependence on foreign oil is widely recognized as one of the nation's biggest problem. Stories of our reliance dominate news reports in text, on television and in the movies. One possible solution, ethanol, is a form of biofuel. ¡°Ethanol¡± is a high-octane fuel that burns clean, produced from renewable sources. At its most basic, ethanol is grain alcohol, produced from crops of grain and corn. Ethanol helps reduce our dependence upon foreign imports because it is domestically produced in the states. Pure ethanol fuel is not used as a motor fuel; rather it is mixed with unleaded fuel. For example, E85 is 85% ethanol and 15% unleaded gasoline, whereas E10 is 10% ethanol and 90% unleaded gasoline. By mixing ethanol with gasoline it decreases the fuel's cost, increases the fuel's octane rating and decreases gasoline's harmful emission. However many are opposed to the use of ethanol due to its low energy input to output ratio. This case study focuses on corn and cellulosic ethanol while analyzing the efficiency, economic issues, environmental impacts (effects on agriculture, air pollution), production, the effect on car industry, the current affairs and future concerns of ethanol. We will also look at Brazil¡¯s ethanol program which has been active longer than any other countries. Our Report Corn Based Ethanol This is an interesting short video on how ethanol is produced from corn. I especially like the narration: This is an University of Minnesota news article on corn ethanol: Cellulosic Ethanol A SCIENCE paper describes the benefit of cellulosic ethanol: Following is a article which explains current problem of cellulosic ethanol: http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/15-10/ff_plant?currentPage=1 Case Study: Brazil Here is a good article about ethanol in Brazil:
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