My knowledge of alcohol fuel "controversy" is modest.
Basically, the economics are marginal on a net energy basis, and lousy when any reasonable cost of capital is included.
See this and other sites for the "controveresy" (i.e., lying by farm state pooliticians and bio mass proponents) chemcases.com
There are considerable engine related problems -
-ethanol has a higher latent heat, and harder to evaporate. Thus engines would need to be heavily modified and pollution controls re-engineered - a non-trivial task. A car that could run both a high % of alcohol and conventional gsoline would cost $200-$500 more even in volume production.
-ethanol attracts water, and this creates multiple fuel system maintence problems. Drag racers and other can avoid this with special fuel lines, often stainless steel. Adds to the cost of the car...
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If you have light crude oil, gasoline can be easily refined. Proven technologies help get more gasoline out of each barrel of crude.
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If you have very expensive oil, cheap biomass, cheap electricity from coal or hydro, low labor costs, and low capital costs (by a command economy or tax subsidies), and have vechicle engine technology like the mid 1970s, then ethanol can be worhtwhile. Brazil did it for a number of years.
Oh, it also helps to have a mild climate that doesn't freeze. Otherwise the ethanol pulls in water to the fuel system, which can separate out once there's enough water. Sometimes the water freezes.... |
