Troubling News About Ethanol

[Tuckerfan]

Uh, it looks like those environmentally friendly biofuels might not be as good as we once thought.

Substituting ethanol for petroleum may benefit corn farmers, but the effects on the atmosphere and humanity are mixed, according to a new study from Stanford University.

While burning E85 instead of gasoline reduces atmospheric levels of two carcinogens, benzene and butadiene, it increases the production of ozone that could lead to more injuries and fatalities for people with asthma or other breathing problems. The study modeled what the atmosphere would look like in 2020 if 85 percent ethanol were mixed with petroleum, and cities such as Los Angeles that already have problems with smog and air quality would get worse.

So, it looks like we might be able to keep the planet from getting warmer, we just won’t be able to breathe the air.

[Dag_Otto]

As noted in the comment section of that blog (posted after you started this thread), vehicles that use E85 are also tuned to use straight gasoline. If ethanol does become a mainstream fuel, engines (and emission controls) can be tailored to use that fuel only.

[Kent_Clark]

Read the response from Roland Hwang of the Natural Resources Defense Council (starting at the bottom of the first page). The NRDC is not a big fan of the internal combustion engine in general.

It sounds like Jacobson took one sliver of the air pollution spectrum where ethanol loses out to gasoline, extrapolated that finding, and ignored everything else.

[Sunspace]

I’m more worried about rising food prices. Who the hell decided that something with such a low EROEI made out of food was a good idea?