Ethanol good for environment, but MPG?

Question

Is ethanol good for a car's miles per gallon?

Answer 1

ethanol emmisions are worse then gas, and w/ fewer MPG

Answer 2

MPG is 25-33% less because E85 has an oxygen molecule attached, but it IS good for the environment AND reduces dependence on foreign oil!  It helps reduce the financial backing of terrorist laden countries.

As ethanol technology increases the energy required to heat/ferment the ethanol is becoming less.

As technology improves ethanol will also become a lot cheaper to produce.  This year every farmer and his brother planted fields and fields of corn as corn prices hit record highs.  The laws of supply and demand have proven that this will cause prices to fall.

Bottom line.  Buy a flex-fuel vehicle and use E85.  Those who don't will be paying much more per mile in the very near future.  Plus you can be certain you ARE helping to prevent global warming and dependence on foreign oil!

Answer 3

Yes it could be, but recently studies has shown that the impact in the environment is not that much of a difference in comparisson with regular gas.

Answer 4

Its not true ethanol is good for the environment. Its good for the corn industry and they have lots of money to spread this story around. They have been at it for about 25 years and it just now is catching on. What would be good for the environment is using trash to make fuel and liquifying farm waste for fuel.

Answer 5

Really MPG isn't that much of a concern when you are talking about Ethanol because it is derived from natural and renewable sources and have no emissions .  Although ethanol engines can get 30 MPG that ain't too bad in my book.

Answer 6

Acually Ethanol isn't so great. Not only is it expensive and hard to find, But it doesn't work. It takes much more energy to make it than is put out. The machines that help make it run on Gasoline. Now when it comes to MPG it isn't so great either. It has a far less BTU count than regular gasoline making its fuel economy about the same. Cellulosic Ethanol  has a higher BTU count but is way way more expensive to make.

Answer 7

How much will the price of cornbread go up if ethanol becomes a major source of fuel?

How much more chemical fertilizers will leach into the ground when growers need to produce corn for fuel?

Answer 8

Actually, ethanol is NOT good for the environment. For one thing, it creates a dirtier, more polluting exhaust than gas. For another, it takes more gas to produce it than it saves. I'm not making this up, the statistics are out there. The gas required to prepare the fields, sow the corn, control the weeds and pests, harvest the crop and bring it to market where it is converted to fuel, together use more gas than the ethanol replaces. The only advantage is that it is easily renewable...and I can't see how that's an advantage given the above.

Consider that the U.S. farm bill, renewable every 5 years (this is one) supplies subsidies to corn, wheat, soy and cotton farmers. To be fair, we should subsidize all farmers or none. So your tax dollars, you see, are helping to support all that corn.... I'm convinced there are better options than ethanol for the environment!

Answer 9

nearly all petrol cars made after 1993 are E10 compatible

Higher octane rating

less emissions

poorer fuel ecomony but a renewable source of fuel

A never ending supply

Its not fossil fuel which means no mining under the ground

Answer 10

Unfortunately, because ethanol contains less energy than gasoline, fuel economy is reduced for most 2002 and earlier FFVs (flexible-fuel vehicles) that are currently on the road by about 30% (most after 2003 lose only 15-17%, or less) when operated on pure E85 (summer blend). Some of the newest vehicles can lessen this reduction to only 5-15%. It is important to note, however, that if the engine had been specifically tuned for consumption of ethanol (higher compression, different fuel-air mixture, etc.) the mileage would have been much better than the results above. The aforementioned fact leads some to believe that the "FFV" engine is more of an infant technology rather than fully mature.

In daily commute driving, mostly highway, 100% E85 in a turbocharged car can hit fuel mileages of over 90% of the normal gasoline fuel economy. Tests indicate approximately a 5% increase in engine performance is possible by switching to E85 fuel in high performance cars.

Answer 11

#1 Pure ethanol has less power because all of the H2O is removed. if it is refined to only 95% there is no significant loss of power were passenger autos are concerned.

#2 refining ethanol to 100% ethanol requires so much more energy to produce, because they aren't refining methanol to the same standard. check the standards of how much water is allowed by law if you do not believe me.

#3 leaving the H2O in increases the power and reduces the cost to refine it.

#4 if ethanol is worse for the environment, then why is it mixed with ethanol to reduce emissions? Answer because it isn't. drillign requires oil and fuel that emits all kinds of junk then you have it actually being burned along with the toxins refinign it produces.

to refine ethanol, the by-products are water, dried distillers grains(a high protein feed supplement), and fuel.

what is that stuff refiners of methanol keep being fined for dumping into the environment?

#5 more ethanol can be refined from a bushel of corn than 4 gallons. Just depends on the perimeters used, and the length of time the mash is allowed to ferment.

#6 the emissions from ethanol are already in our environment. it is consumed by the plants and converted to chemical energy. drilling that chemical energy up from the ground increases the amount of those gases in our atmosphere rather than recycling it with the use of plants.

Answer 12

Ethanol is NOT good for the environment. For one thing, it creates a dirtier, more polluting exhaust than gas. For another, it takes more gas to produce it than it saves. I'm not making this up, the statistics are out there. The gas required to prepare the fields, sow the corn, control the weeds and pests, harvest the crop and bring it to market where it is converted to fuel, together use more gas than the ethanol replaces. The only advantage is that it is easily renewable...and I can't see how that's an advantage given the above.

Consider that the U.S. farm bill, renewable every 5 years (this is one) supplies subsidies to corn, wheat, soy and cotton farmers. To be fair, we should subsidize all farmers or none. So your tax dollars, you see, are helping to support all that corn.... I'm convinced there are better options than ethanol for the environment!

Answer 13

yes, it is good for the enviornment

there isn't much difference in the MPG compared to other fuel sources