Why is ethanol a better fuel than Paraffin?

Question

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Answer 1

Because it burns better and cleaner ,so you can burn more of it quickly,hence more power from the engine. Down side is you need to burn 30 -40% more to get the same power as paraffin. The amount of energy used to grow the sugar then ferment it in containers ,then heat it to remove the ethanol then cool it back into a liquid again....that takes alot of energy and alot of effort. So estimate for every 5 units of energy derived from ethanol ,it takes about 3-4 to produce the ethanol in the first place.... not very efficent huh.

Answer 2

It's not.  Only the ethanol producers say it is.

Paraffin is a byproduct of the petrochemical industry.  As with all fossil fuels the raw materials will eventually run out.

Ethanol if produced by fermenting sugar and distilling it.  The process produces considerably more carbon dioxide than burning paraffin, especially if the sugar cane is grown on land that was previously forest.

Answer 3

old know all-  is wrong.  Ethanol can be made from many types of plants, not just sugar cane or corn.  Yes, the fermentation produces some CO2.  The heat for the distillation can be solar heat with the addition of sun-dried biomass as a supplemental fuel and yes, that too makes some CO2.  However the CO2 released was originally in the plants and they took it out of the air.  The next crop will take in all that CO2 as it grows. A bio-fuel like ethanol is CO2 neutral.  And the process used now does not require more energy than is produced, that is a lie from the oilmen.

It does not have the same energy per gallon as Paraffin, so you need more of it to do the same work.  Paraffin is made from petroleum, a fossil fuel, leftover from long dead plants.  Using Paraffin releases CO2 which plants love, it makes them grow better, but it also is blamed, perhaps incorrectly, for the gradual warming of the planet.

I favour genetic engineering of plants just to provide fuel. Plants that cannot crossbreed with food crops and which are insect and disease resistant and which will grow where food crops do not do well.  Since my father built the Gene Gun for two Cornell professors, so they could shoot DNA into seeds, I think it is a technology which should be used.

The Earth has all the carbon it has ever had, but plants took it and locked it into peat, coal and oil. Burning those releases the carbon back into the air for the plants to thrive on and also to give off more oxygen for us.  It is an extremely small part of the natural Climate Change.  But then change is neither bad or good, it is just change.  Some lose and some prosper.