Alcohol/Methanol fuels in the USA?

Question

Currently, Brazil has Alcohol/Methanol fuels at every gas station. (Required by the government) The price per gallon is half of what a gallon of gasoline costs. I saw a rent a car that is capable of taking Alcohol/Methanol or gasoline. I these alternative cars are not that much more to produce. Why doesnt the US have this alternative fuel, Alcohol/Methanol at gas stations? Why isnt the United States going for Alcohol/Methanol fuels?

Answer 1

We do, it's called E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline so you won't drink it) and General Motors has been building E85 flex-fuel cars since 2000.  The rest of the industry is now starting to, yay!

However it's only a partial solution.  It's not possible to make enough E85 to cover America's fuel needs,  Brazil is tearing down millions of acres of rainforest to grow ethanol crops, which is really, really bad!   Ultimately E85 will be a small part of the solution but many other technologies will come into play.

Answer 2

Actually, the Big Three American car companies have been producing a lot of these cars.  Mine is a 2001 Chevy S-10 and it will run on E-85 which is 85% Ethanol based.  Ethanol is an alcohol type fuel.  Ethanol is what Brazil uses.  The reason why Brazil's fuel is so much cheaper is because they produce a lot of sugar cane which can convert very easily (moreso than corn) to ethanol.  The US doesn't have the climate to raise sugar cane as well as Brazil does.  However the US is the #1 producer in the world of ethanol, even more than Brazil.  Not as great of a percentage of people in the US use ethanol, but that is because it has only started recently becoming available at local gas stations.  The US is also working at developing techniques to turn convert certain types of grasses and plant stalks into ethanol.  That would allow ethanol to be cheaper in the United States and make it so where it doesnt' have to compete against the food price of corn.  The reason why fuel isn't 100% ethanol is because Ethanol can be hard to start in cold climates, so gasoline needs to be added for cold weather starting.

Many politicians across the midwest are pushing for the opening of new E85 stations and funding of E-85 plants and ethanol research, because not only does it help the US gain oil indepence from countries such as Iran and help the environment, but it also helps farmers in their states/districts.

And by the way, for all of the people who love the foreign car makers...as far as I know, none of them make an E-85 compatible car that is sold in the US.

Answer 3

bad because people can get sick once it gets in the air

Answer 4

Right now it's a political decision away. As I understand it, the only difference between gasoline powered and methanol powered is in the jets feeding fuel to the cylinders. THAT should just be a matter of programming nowadays. The real problem is that we aren't building methanol plants yet.

And ethanol is not a good idea for the US. Not only would the ATF have a major headache keeping it in gas tanks and not in whiskey barrels, but also methanol can be produced from prarie grass, which would be far more efficient than corn.

Answer 5

Brazil uses ethanol, not methanol.  The reason ethanol containing fuels in Brazil are cheaper than gasoline is because the government has granted them a tax subsidy.  Ethanol is actually more expensive to produce than gasoline, and could not compete without some form of subsidy.

Answer 6

The lobbiests for these products are working on it.  Big oil money is hard to fight, especially with our current administrations d**k so deep in the a$$ of the oil companies.