There are many different types of alternate fuels for cars at our disposal, such as Ethanol, Natural Gas, Electricity, and Hydrogen Fuels. We can use these fuels instead of normal gasoline fuels that pollute our air and contribute to destroying our environment. Many of these alternative fuels may be less convenient to use, because they are less accessible. However, if people decide to use these fuels then they can make our world a green friendly world. There this a ton of upside to using alternative fuels, according to Larry West’s article on the top eight alternative fuels, as they can help nations become more energy independent. In addition, there are several downsides or challenges associated with alternative fuels for cars, such as …show more content…
At its low price it’s much more affordable then most fuels making it a good option. There a lot of positive sides to using ethanol but there an also a few negative things it can produce when used or even made.
Ethanol is a good alternative fuel but there is negative things that come with it. Ethanol requires a bunch of corn, barley, and wheat to make (Meyers, 2014). Which in turn could be used to feed starving people all over the world. Using corn, barley, and wheat hinders food availability and even the prices of the food. The new York times has stated that using ethanol actually decreases gas mileage. Ethanol gives you 2-3 miles less than normal gasoline (West, 2014). Ethanol can also break down faster than normal gasoline. Meaning that ethanol can cause rust of the car engine. Making ethanol can actually pollute the air a bunch because of all the gasoline it requires to power the tractors and machines that gather the required material to make it. Ethanol has negative impacts on our environment but overall it has more positives then negatives and makes a good alternative fuel.
Natural Gas is another alternative fuel option that has a bunch of positive sides to it. Using natural gas produces lower negative emissions that pollute the air. Natural gas produces less smog then your normal gasoline that everyone uses. Natural gas is helping America as a nation to use clean environmental friendly energy sources. Using natural gas can reduce the probability of
To present a counter argument on this issue, there are various advantages of using biofuels as well such as preserving the natural environment and saving the planet from harmful gaseous omissions. Ethanol,
There is one reason that hurts me the most about corn ethanol being used in the United States. That one reason is because of animals. One of the bad uses we do is using leftover corn ethanol to fed animals we consume today. Animals like chicken, cattle, and pig eating ethanol is passed on to us. For example, just like a fish eating plastic and us eating the fish. This does not sound appealing. However, not everyone is worried about this.
California laws have very high support for advanced biofuel development. The California Legislature urges the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take action to amend the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard to favor non-food crop biofuel. As a result, this would promote the development of advanced fuels by simply using grasses, wood, algae and other plants to make cellulosic ethanol. Because cellulose makes up nearly half of all plant biomass, cellulosic ethanol is considered the largest potential source of biofuel in the near future. This would eliminate the need to rely on other countries for fuel when the U.S. can establish their own industry. The positive externalities would be more jobs and less pollution in America. However, the process of converting plant-life into ethanol is much more difficult that it is for starch to become ethanol. Consumers may yet face exceedingly high prices for cellulosic ethanol from within U.S. borders.
Switching from the expensive oil to alternative fuels has moved from a dream to reality. Today, there are dozens of alternatives to oil that are currently available us to be used. One alternative to oil that is being used more today is ethanol. Derived from plant materials, ethanol can be a cheaper, cleaner alternative to the gasoline that our vehicles run off. When going to gas pumps, one will notice that much of the gasoline is up to 10 percent of ethanol. According to our text, most ethanol in the U.S. is made from corn, yet ethanol can be made from any biomes-- including garbage. (Turk & Bensel, 2011)
In the New York Times article, “As Ethanol Booms, Critics warn of Environmental Effect”, Erica Gies writes about the many misconceptions of how ethanol is impacting everyday lives. She narrates the drawbacks of producing ethanol and how it was suppose to reduce emissions, but this is questionable due to the lengthy process and number of refineries and resources needed. Then she goes into further details about the local effects in our nation’s increased food prices, water pollution and consumption. By writing this article in the New York Times Gies’s primary audience will be those subscribed to New York Times, or follow this newspaper regularly. The secondary audience will be anyone caught in conversation by someone who has read the article and that maybe directly or indirectly related to ethanol issues.
Of course there are reasons why we have not converted to alcohol burning vehicles before. Ethanol costs more per gallon than gasoline. However, new technologies have the potential to produce ethanol at significantly smaller costs. Methanol, a high-performance liquid fuel made from wood or coal, can be produced at prices comparable to the prices of gasoline and natural gas. In addition, oil does not occur naturally in unlimited supply, and just in the past few years, gas prices have been increasing dramatically. Those prices will not fall back down. However, the introduction of an inexpensive alcohol-based fuel would provide an alternative means of power and give consumers more choices.
Mankind has relied on non-renewable resources for thousands of years, and only recently has it started to take its toll on the environment. Chemists have been experimenting with different types of fuels and adding to gasoline to make it more efficient. This is when ethanol made its debut into the fuel industry, as an additive to gasoline. Ethanol is put into gas as a combatant against water, which can find its way into fuel tanks of vehicles. It reduces the effect that this water has on the health of the vehicle, and as a result increases gas mileage, and also increases the amount of complete combustion. Ethanol consumption has severe drawbacks pertaining to its effect on the environment. Production of ethanol increases the formation of
Though ethanol may be better for the environment and ultimately the American farmer, it still has several disadvantages. The first disadvantage is that ethanol can be much pricier than gasoline, depending on where you live in the United States. Fuel price data from the Department of Energy (DOE) shows that in the Midwest (where the majority of America’s ethanol is produced) ethanol sells for almost 30 cents less per gallon than conventional gasoline. However, on the West Coast, filling up with ethanol would cost a driver an average of 35 cents more per gallon. In the Mid-Atlantic States, ethanol would cost drivers ever more: a full 44 cents per gallon.
Ethanol is the fuel of the future. Really? How so? Ethanol will solve the energy crisis. That sounds a little far fetched. Ethanol stimulates time travel. Alright, that’s just a flat-out lie. It seems that these days everybody and their brother thinks that ethanol is the magic key to the future of powering automobiles and solving the problem of dependence on foreign oil. Well, that is not the case. Ethanol is not the energy source of the future; in fact ethanol only creates more energy problems.
Ethanol fuel has many positive features as an alternative to the use of liquid fuel. First, ethanol is renewable. A relatively safe fuel would show very few engine changes. Second, its energy density is much higher than with some of the other alternative fuels, such as methanol, which means there would be less volume required to go the same distance. With the third benefit of ethanol, it would be able to improve much of the agricultural economies by providing farmers with stable market crops, such as maize and sugar beets, and with
i. Ethanol is considered as a alternative fuel at a lower cost level in relation to gasoline. It is produced by fermenting sugars from a range of feedstock such as wheat and corn. Ethanol is blended with gasoline from E10 (5% ethanol - 95% gasoline) to E85 (85% ethanol - 15% gasoline).
Alternative sources are the only absolute way we can secure the safety of our environment. Everyday carbon monoxide is released into our air. This is creating holes in the ozone layer and exposing humans to deadly fumes (Bad Greenhouse, 1). More money available to scientists who study alternative fuels will allow them to do more extensive testing and research. Although the world is not yet running
Conventional vehicles burn fossil fuels and emit exhaust fumes to the atmosphere. Not only have gasoline vehicles depleted natural resources, they also have caused severe environmental pollutions, especially in some populous nations such as China and India. [1] CO2 is the main contributor of the greenhouse effect. 97% of greenhouse emission is carbon dioxide. And in turn, road transportation has become the largest sector in producing carbon dioxide. [2] Because of the decreasing natural resources and the increasing environmental pollution, scientists focus more on new technologies that can help reduce those consequences. However, even though scientists hope hybrid cars could substitute traditional cars in order to reduce
This essay will first discuss the advantages of using corn ethanol as the main source of fuel in the future, such as the renewable features of corn itself, and the benefits of using corn ethanol as an additive of gasoline instead of using gasoline alone. However, everything has its strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, the second part of the essay will discuss some of the weaknesses in applying the fuel into practical usage. For example, corn ethanol currently encounters technical limitations serving itself as a standalone fuel, meaning that corn ethanol can only function by combining itself with a certain amount of gasoline, while gasoline is a kind of fossil fuel. Lastly, this essay will conduct a comparison with other renewable resources in the world, including solar power, other biofuels, and hydrogen fuel.
What environmental benefits do we receive form an influx in ethanol as an alternative fuel? First let’s look