Ethanol Vs Gasoline - article about Ethanol Vs Gasoline

Ethanol vs. Gasoline: How Each Impacts the Environment and Politics

If you watch the gas prices fluctuate from holiday to holiday and season to season, it’s easy to see that gasoline is big business. Nations have fought wars over the precious supply of oil that is difficult to find, drill, and refine. Still, there are concerns from environmentalists of the effects of reckless farming methods that may take advantage of land and labor in third world nations. In conclusion, when it come to ethanol vs. gasoline, it is important for consumers to know the way energy use is changing. Be watchful for cars that will run on mixed fuels or ethanol only.

Environmental Concerns

When it comes to environmental concerns, there are many differences between ethanol vs. gasoline. There is no question that the combustion of fossil fuels has lead way to many environmental concerns. In fact, it is proposed that transportation fuels are America’s largest polluters. The burning of petroleum-based fuels produces the majority of pollutants such as carbon monoxide, reactive organic gases, and nitrogen oxides that American cities suffer with. For this reason, many fuel oxygenates have been created to counteract these emissions. While ethanol is one such oxygenate, MTBE or methyl tertiary butyl ether is another. MTBE is proven to be a water pollutant and is considered to possibly be a human carcinogen.

When comparing ethanol vs. gasoline, it is important to understand that ethanol can either be used as an additive to gasoline or on its own. The use of ethanol either mixed within gasoline or on used its own can have a powerful impact on the amount of pollutants produced. The use of ethanol can reduce the carbon monoxide emitted from the tailpipe by 30 percent. In addition, VOC exhaust emissions can be reduced by 12 percent. Ethanol use has also been used to reduce toxic emissions by 30 percent and PM emissions by more than 25 percent. Ethanol is slowly replacing the use of MTBE mentioned above. Unlike MTBE, ethanol is significantly less harmful as it is non-toxic, biodegradable and water soluble.

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