How Does Flex Fuel Technology Help The Environment?

Question

How Does Flex Fuel Technology Help The Environment?

Answer 1

The theory is that when corn grows it takes carbon from the air, and when you burn it you return the same amount to the air making it neutral.  The problem is that it take about the same amount of energy to produce and turn the corn into ethanol as what you get when you burn the fuel.

Reasonable people disagree on whether it takes more energy to make ethanol than what is produced when you burn it. The best evidence that I have seen was when two of the disagreeing reasonable people calculated it, and checked each other's work.  The result was that the person who believed that you got a return on your investment refused to count the energy that was used in making the tractor's tires used to grow the corn because that "was stupid"

Add to that the fact that most new ethanol plants use coal, and you wind up with a worse pollution problem that uses scarce water and food resources. Forget E85 and try to get your congressman to end the program. It has failed.

Answer 2

Wooglet is correct-- the energy use can go both ways --- BUT I hope his friend also figured in the cost of transporting ethanol ALL the way from the refinery to the local gasoline terminal in trucks-- as it cannot be sent through a pipeline due to ethanol's attraction to  water, so it must be added to gasoline near its final destination. (water in your gas tank is a BAD thing). :)

At 10% mix-- the price of food has increased dramatically -- can you imagine what an 85% mix would do to the price of food-- if the entire US car fleet was switched! Corn would be $10.00 per EAR!

This is just a political scam that wastes millions of dollars every year--

Answer 3

it runs on ethanol (corn liquor)

Answer 4

It does not. All the fuel will produce the same CO2 for a given amount of work.

Answer 5

Flex fuel vehicles pollute less. Less polution in the atmosphere is good for the environment  Flex fuel vehicles emits less CO2 into the atmosphere. CO2 causes global warming.