Ethanol refining may release more of some pollutants than previously thought

[longknife]

But, I thought this Green stuff was good for the environment! What's going on here? Well, this is what the American Geophysical Union says:


Ethanol fuel refineries could be releasing much larger amounts of some ozone-forming compounds into the atmosphere than current assessments suggest, a new study finds. Airborne measurements downwind from an ethanol fuel refinery in Decatur, Illinois, show that ethanol emissions are 30 times higher than government estimates. The measurements also show emissions of all volatile organic compounds, which include ethanol, were five times higher than government numbers, which estimate emissions based on manufacturing information.


Read more @ Ethanol refining may release more of some pollutants than previously thought -- ScienceDaily

 

[Pogo]

E10 made my Saturn run so inefficiently that I actually used more gas, even when it was only 90% of the mix, than I did when I used pure gas. Dropped my mileage by 15 to 20 percent, consistently.

 

[Wuwei]

E10 made my Tracker drop 10% in mpg. It's a wash.

At best, you need 1 unit of energy to make 1.5 units of ethanol from corn. That cost in energy comes during farming, irrigation, fertilization and fermenting. That is very inefficient.

With sugar cane you get 8 units of energy for each unit of energy used in manufacturing.

Switchgrass (a form of prairie grass) provides 5.4 units for every one unit of energy in manufacture. It is readily available in the US, but has no lobby behind it like corn growers.

 

[Pogo]

E10 made my Tracker drop 10% in mpg. It's a wash.

At best, you need 1 unit of energy to make 1.5 units of ethanol from corn. That cost in energy comes during farming, irrigation, fertilization and fermenting. That is very inefficient.

With sugar cane you get 8 units of energy for each unit of energy used in manufacturing.

Switchgrass (a form of prairie grass) provides 5.4 units for every one unit of energy in manufacture. It is readily available in the US, but has no lobby behind it like corn growers.

Politics fucks so much up. Henry Ford made his early cars run on hemp.