using ethanol as an alternative to gasoline to fuel our cars

ETHANOL AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO GASOLINE

Ethanol has lately been considered as a promising alternative to gasoline as fuels for automobiles . According to researchers , ethanol may be employed as fuel through the process of reformation , which involves the breakage of a water molecule to generate hydrogen and oxygen gases (Hill et al , 2006 . The hydrogen gas that results from this chemical reaction is employed as source of energy . Carbon dioxide is also generated as a by-product of the chemical reaction . It has been estimated that approximately 1 ounce of carbon dioxide gas

is emitted from 4 ounces of hydrogen produced from ethanol

One advantage of using ethanol as fuel for automobiles is that there is ease in the transport of fuel instead of the previous candidate alternative of using solar power to run automobiles . In the case of solar-based automobiles , the accessibility of energy for fuel an automobile will be limited by the presence of sunlight , from which solar power is generated . Another advantage is that the conversion of ethanol to hydrogen is approximately 70 to 80 in energy efficiency , which is the same in terms of the energy efficiency using gasoline . Ethanol is also much cheaper than gasoline hence the switch from using gasoline to ethanol is advantageous . Ethanol also enhances the performance of the engine of an automobile . There is also less smoke emissions when ethanol is employed as fuel to automobiles

One disadvantage in using ethanol as an alternative to gasoline is that only a number of car brands design vehicles that carry engine that can utilize ethanol as fuel . There is still a need in creating more car models that are specialized to consume ethanol as fuel . In addition the engines of ethanol-using vehicles are smaller in volumes hence there is still a need to produce engines that can take in larger volumes of ethanol

Reference

Hill J , Nelson E , Tilman D , Polasky S and Tiffany D (2006 Environmental , economic , and energetic costs and benefits of biodiesel and ethanol biofuels . Proc . Natl . Acad . Sci . USA . 103 (30 :11206-10...