Ethanol has been the source of great interest lately with claims that it could take over from petrol, reducing our reliance on oil based fuels whilst also being better for the environment.

But is ethanol really the answer to all our problems?

Ethanol is sometimes known as drinking alcohol with it’s energy content is around two-thirds that of petrol by volume. It is steadily becoming a popular alternative fuel with around one of every eight gallons of fuel sold in the US containing around 8-0% ethanol. The US has also setup six biorefineries, scheduled for completion in five years, and these biorefinerires will produce over 130 gallons of fuel per year.

Ethanol is made from plants which naturally soak up carbon dioxide. By growing crops for ethanol and by using ethanol as a fuel, it is believed that less carbon dioxide will be released into the air than through the production and use of petrol.

Most ethanol is made from corn. However these corn crops can cause problems – there are issues over water quality as the pesticides and fertilizers used on corn can make their way into local water supplies. Water shortages are also a problem as corn is said to need a lot of water to grow. With farmers able to make more money from corn than food crops, local food crops may move further afield – this means that food will travel longer distances and release more carbon dioxide into the air. There are also hints that ethanol might actually consume more energy during it’s manufacture than it actually provides.

One issue at the moment is the cost of ethanol. The six biorefineries in the US will not add great volumes to existing ethanol production quantities – the existence of the biorefineries is more to prove than cost-effective ethanol production is possible, and than ethanol can be produced from the hundreds of millions of tonnes of cellulose in plant scrap that is normally thrown away. Currently, the US ethanol supply is small – gasoline consumption is around 140 billion gallons a year. In comparison, ethanol is only around 4 billion gallons a year. It is hoped that in the near future, the price of ethanol will come down substantially – maybe to the $1.20 a gallon mark, a hefty mark-down considering gasoline is currently around $3 a gallon – which will encourage a larger demographic to use ethanol instead of gasoline.

There are also questions over ethanol’s green credentials. It has been hailed by some as the green alternative to petrol, with it’s low emissions and greenhouse gas emissions. However it may not be as green as was once thought. Recent research shows that replacing petrol with ethanol will reduce a car’s greenhouse emissions – but only by around 13%. This reduction is much smaller than previously thought because ethanol may produce a lot of greenhouse gas emissions during it’s manufacture.

So, whilst ethanol is probably a solution to our oil worries and does provide some help in the fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it’s not quite the miracle fuel that it was once thought to be. Consumers should be encouraged to use ethanol over petrol wherever possible, however more research should be done into the negative effects of ethanol, along with ways to make manufacture more environmentally friendly.

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