8/12/2019 Ethanol as an Alternative Car Fuel
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(CO2is a greenhouse gas). When cars burn petrol, it produces
more CO2and also NO. NO is
a toxic gas which can increase the amount of ozone (O3) in the
atmosphere. But ethanol
does not contain any nitrogen atoms; therefore it reduces ozone
formation.
4. Renewability:Ethanol is produced from fermentation of glucose
present in plants which can be regrown;
therefore, ethanol is regarded as a renewable resource. Ethanol
is a biofuel, different from
petroleum or gasoline. Petroleum is produced from cracking crude
oil, which is a fossil fuel
and non-renewable resource. This is the reason for ethanol to
have higher renewability
than petroleum and gasoline.
5. Compatibility with technology:- Ethanol is commonly used for
cars engines. Most cars can run on a 10% ethanol / 90%
petrol mix without damage or the need to modify the fuel system
of the engine.
Because the energy got from ethanol is not high enough as
petrol, percentage of petrol
in car engines is still high. However, in flexible fuel vehicles
(FFVs) engines, the
percentage of ethanol is much higher (about 70 to 100% pure
ethanol). Therefore, FFVs
can maximise use of ethanols benefits.
- Because ethanol has high flash point, this makes it harder to
ignite in cold climates orweather, which leads to a problem of
spark the ignition to start the engine in cold
weather.
- Ethanol blends in use today have little impact on fuel economy
or vehicle performance.Todays vehicles are designed to run on
gasoline blended with 10 percent of ethanol or
less with no perceptible effect on fuel economy.
