Ethanol Fuel From Corn

Posted by Mia Nguyen

Several studies compared the total energy that goes into making ethanol gas from corn, such as harvesting and refining with the energy needed to produce gasoline from fossil fuels. The researchers ended up with a conclusion: Not only does corn-based ethanol gas reduce petroleum use by 95 percent, it also reduces greenhouse gas emission about 13 percent.

Kammen-a researcher-told LiveScience, “Making ethanol from corn is a good thing if you want to offset fossil fuels from overseas. On the greenhouse gas side of things, it is not clear if corn, as grown today, is a good thing. We just don’t know yet, but it appears to be a mildly good thing.”

Brazil has converted nearly all its cars and gas pumps to run on a 96 percent ethanol duel produced from sugarcane. They have already seen the benefits of sugarcane fuel- it is cleaner burning and it is half the price of imported gasoline.
In the US, some 5 million of the cars and trucks on the road are “flex-fuel”, however, there are very few pumps offering ethanol fuel.

With world energy and food demands increasing, do you think we should convert the entire economy to corn-based ethanol?