Is ethanol a fad?

Question

Do you believe ethanol is a fuel worth investing in?

Answer 1

No.

Corn ethanol could be considered an energy loser because it requires petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides to grow the corn.

Cellulose ethanol will not require these petroleum products, ot and planting equipment or irrigation.

Give it 3-5 years and ethanol will be less expensive than gasoline, and will grow on every open countryside.

Answer 2

Ethanol cannot sustain our fuel consumption.  The only thing that the use of ethanol can do for the United States is lessen our demand for foreign oil.  The use of corn for the production of ethanol will only reduce the acres we use for food production and/or more forest will be cut down for cropland.  Ethanol is not a feasible alternative fuel for the long time.  Plus ethanol is not as efficant as regular gas but we still pay the same for gas with ethanol added even though ethanol is cheaper.

Answer 3

It is not worth investing in at all.  It may be a renewable source, but it's already being used.  There have been stories about how Brazil gets 90% of their fuel from ethanol, but they only need about a 10th as much as us overall.  The idea of growing corn on every available road side is just rediculous; but that's about what we'd have to do.

Biodiesel is really the way to go.  It can be made from c**p that we're already throwing away; no need to grow new stuff.  This would also pull garbage out of the landfills.  Lastly, most cars and trucks that already run on diesel can have biosiesel dumped into them instead and start right up, nothing new to build or modify.  

So yes, hopefully ethanol is a fad, because someone will eventually realize that it is not really a "renewable" resource.  The sun is renewable, wind is renewable, corn is just regrowable.

Answer 4

Hopefully, IT IS NOT a fad. We need to figure out something to use to lower emissions and other pollutants. But there are too many greedy and/or ignorant people out there who just don't care, so they might keep it a "fad." :(

Answer 5

As an octane booster to be mixed 3% with gasoline, it works quite well.  MTBE is better, though.

As a sole fuel source, it is pretty much useless.

Answer 6

Absolutely a fad.  Burning one fuel or another, 6 or a half dozen.  

     Stop the expansion of the suburbs.  Force development of deeper and taller buildings for habitation.  Make it so people want to live close to their work and shopping.  More and better public transportation.

     Advanced motor vehicles using magnetism verse anti magnetism motor drives. Whoa did I let the cat out of the bag???

Answer 7

I don't think its a fad.  I think it may be the way of the future.  After all, we'll run out of gas at some point.  It may be far in the future, but it's coming.

Answer 8

Right now, it is one of the few alternatives we have that could work almost as effectively as oil. We tried electricity-it failed. We are trying hydrogen, but it is a long shot. How else are we supposed to fuel our cars, not to mention our ambulances and fire trucks and police force, when oil runs out?

Answer 9

It had better be a fad, otherwise a lot of people may starve to death.  For example, corn tortilla prices have already increased by 300% in Mexico - a country where millions of poor people depend on this food and cannot afford such a price increase.

Answer 10

Yes.

If we start to make it from things other than corn, it could be a big help.  Something like switchgrass, which grows on poor land unsuitable for high value crops, and with little water, would be good.

Answer 11

at this point it is . Even if the car has been modified for Ethanol it still will get bad gas mileage. ethanol gets about 5-8mpg less than regular gas. so by the time you have filled up your regular tank once and you are already through 1.5 tanks of gas with ethanol. I would wait till there has been more done to the cars and the ethanol to really be worth it.