Alcoholic fuels, such as ethanol, have recently been touted as cutting-edge future fuels, clean alternatives to gasoline or diesel. Alcohol is a completely renewable resource, as it can be fermented or chemically extracted from virtually any substance that contains carbohydrates (most commonly starches or sugars). The use of alcohol as vehicle fuel could go a long way towards independence from oil in the very near future, but how ‘green’ is it as an alternative to petroleum-derived fuels?
Henry Ford’s first vehicle used an alcohol-powered engine, and Ford envisioned alcohol as the vehicle’s primary fuel as early as 1925, telling the New York Times that “the fuel of the future will come from fruit…or from The apples”. , weeds, sawdust, just about anything,” he said. “There is fuel in every bit of plant matter that can be fermented. There is enough alcohol in a year’s yield from an acre of potatoes to power the machinery needed to cultivate the fields for a hundred years.” Although frequently discredited for his private views and political associations, no one can honestly claim that Ford was anything less than a visionary when it comes to automotive technology.As a farmer and champion of the American agricultural industry, Ford built his first car with hemp plastics and fueled it with plant-based alcohol.He envisioned the growth of the automobile industry It went hand in hand with that of the agricultural industry, so if we’ve known about this alternative fuel for over a century, why haven’t we been using it?
This sustainable vision of the future was largely suppressed by heavy lobbying by the oil industry, which included a smear campaign against Ford, claiming that his plan would enrich farmers at the expense of the common consumer. Some historians and theorists even credit Rockefeller, the billionaire oil magnate, with heavily financing the prohibition movement to eliminate potential competition from alcoholic fuels. Until recently, falsely low gasoline prices outweighed the environmental effects for most consumers, but now that we are faced with the staggering effects of global warming, our collective conscience urges us to look for alternatives. Early internal combustion engines, such as the Model A, were designed to run on alcohol or gasoline, and small, inexpensive modifications can be made to allow modern vehicles to run on alcohol. In fact, more than two million cars in Brazil have been modified to run on alcohol, which is not a coincidence, since Brazil has a large industry that distills ethanol from sugar cane. The United States has also launched a massive ethanol production industry, using corn as a feedstock. However, growing crops specifically for ethanol production has sparked much debate about the practicality of this practice. The main arguments are: vast tracts of land are deforested, or natural habitat destroyed, to make room for corn or sugarcane crops, thus negating any potential benefits related to global warming; and global food shortages may be exacerbated if fertile land is devoted to fuel production. Both problems can be addressed through the use of alternative “feedstock” for the creation of ethanol and many alternatives have been proposed. As Henry Ford said, “almost anything” can be used for ethanol fermentation, including agricultural waste or food byproducts. Some of the most exciting alternatives are rice straw, which is typically burned in the fields (releasing vast amounts of greenhouse gases), and human waste, on which we currently spend billions of dollars and electricity generated from fossil fuels. to process. Let’s imagine, then, that we can create a completely carbon-neutral process to generate alcoholic fuels. How clean is the fuel and what are its advantages and disadvantages compared to gasoline or diesel?
The famous Indianapolis 500 has used methanol as an officially required fuel since the 1960s, because it is not a variable mix of chemicals like gasoline, provides more power in properly tuned engines, and burns cooler than gasoline. Using today’s common engine technology, alcohol has less horsepower per volume, resulting in fewer miles per gallon. Therefore, alcohol fuel tanks may need to be larger to offer the same type of travel distance as gasoline or diesel. One of the greatest advantages conferred by the use of alcohol is the elimination of extremely harmful compounds such as tetraethyl lead, benzene, toluene, sulfur and many others. Alcohol’s high “octane” rating, rather its resistance to premature detonation, eliminates the problem of engine “knocking” (which was the original reason for creating led gasoline). Alcohol is also safer than gasoline due to its lower volatility, which means it’s less likely to ignite from heat or sparks. Sounds great right? But at the moment of combustion, when used in a vehicle engine, how do emissions from this alternative fuel accumulate? Alcohol is actually a remarkably cleaner fuel, emitting up to 95% less carbon monoxide and offering great reductions or complete elimination of volatile chemicals and poisons. The total reduction in greenhouse gas emissions can reach 75% when using high-grade alcohols.