CORN ETHANOL ONE OF THE ANSWERS TO AMERICA`S MANY CHALLENGES

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Corn Ethanol : Answer to America 's many Challenges

Presently , the transportation sector in the U .S and most other countries of the world

mainly relies on fossil fuels (petroleum and its products like diesel and natural gas . In the U .S about 97 of fuel for transportation is derived from petroleum and its products (Durante Sneller , 3 . Fossil fuels (coal , petroleum and natural gas ) are also used in industrial sector , for residential (refrigeration , heating etc ) and commercial

purposes and generation of electricity . Thus US economy at present is largely `fossil fuel dependent . With the ever growing development in industrial and transportation sector , the demand for energy is continuing to increase dramatically . This can affect the global environment and US economy in unpredictable ways (Durante Sneller 3

Detrimental effects related to extensive use of fossil fuels

Use of petroleum as a fuel is associated with emission of green house gases like carbon

dioxide and other environment polluting gases like carbon monoxide nitrogen oxide , sulfur dioxide etc . Green house gases have been held responsible for producing global warming and changing the world climate (International Energy Agency , 52 . Also fossil fuels constitute a non-renewable source of energy , which once used cannot be re-used again There are limited reservoirs of petroleum on our planet , largely limited to Middle-East countries and North Africa . Extensive use of petroleum is greatly crippling the U .S economy since according to the figures given by Energy Information Administration about 60 of the petroleum requirements of U .S in the year 2005 had to be imported from Middle East nations (see table1 . The statistics related to petroleum consumption and imports is shown in table 1 . The price of petroleum has been reaching sky-high level since past few years . Thus billions of dollars are being spent in meeting the petroleum requirement

Solution to the problem : Corn based ethanol

Countries all over the world are facing a dire need for increasing the domestic production

of a renewable and a clean source of energy which does not pollute the environment or cause global climate changes and at the same time improves national and economic security by achieving energy security and maintaining low fuel costs . United States , being the top-most country involved in petroleum import at present (see table 1 ) is especially facing a challenge to develop a non-petroleum source of energy , which has above mentioned characteristics (Durante Sneller , 3-4 .This has led to the discovery and use of fuels derived from renewable sources like agricultural products (corn , wheat , sugar cane etc . At present among the various biofuels which are being manufactured from agricultural products , ethanol by far forms the most widely used biofuel for transportation , especially in the United States and Brazil . However at present ethanol represents less than 2 of transport fuel used in the United States (International Energy Agency , 11 . In Brazil and other tropical countries ethanol is mainly derived from sugar cane (molasses .However in U .S , since corn...