Automobiles ethanol fuel

Neat methanol and ethanol fuels do not present the problem of phase separation since water is soluble in these alcohols in all proportions except at very low temperatures. Interestingly, it is not necessary to use anhydrous neat alcohol fuels in spark-ignition engines. The neat ethanol-fueled automobiles in Brazil operate with 190 proof ethanol (95 vol %), which precludes the energy-consuming step of producing anhydrous ethanol. Indeed, the addition of 10 and 20 wt % water to methanol raises its octane value to about 107 and... 

Ethanol works as a fuel in much the same way as gasoline it is burned in a combustion reaction to release energy. In automobiles, ethanol is usually mixed with gasoline. Most... 

Alcohols are some of the most common organic compounds. Methyl alcohol (methanol), also known as wood alcohol, is used as an industrial solvent and as an automobile racing fuel. Ethyl alcohol (ethanol) is sometimes called grain alcohol because it is produced by the fermentation of grain or almost any other organic material. Isopropyl alcohol is the common name for 2-propanol, used as rubbing alcohol. ... 

The next considerable leap in interest in bioenergy and in technology development occurred with the invention of the automobile in the early 1900 s and Henry Ford s vision of an ethanol-fueled vehicle. As early as 1917, scientists knew that ethanol and other alcohols could be used as fuels. Because ethanol and other alcohols could be derived easily from any vegetable matter that undergoes fermentation, they could be cheaply and easily produced. 

Despite this, however, ethanol fuels were not widely embraced as the fuel of choice for automobiles, particularly in counties such as the United States, where an ethanol tax made the alternative fuel more expensive than petrol. By 1906 when the tax was removed, gasoline fuel had developed an extensive infrastructure, and ethanol could not compete. 

Alcohols are sometimes used today as alternative fuels and as octane enhancers in fuel for automobiles. Ethanol is combined with gasoline, for example, in a one-to-nine ratio to produce gasohol. Some experts have promoted the use of gasohol as a fuel for automobiles because it burns more cleanly and efficiently. However, there are also disadvantages. The combustion of ethanol produces only about 60% as much energy per gram as the combustion of gasoline does. The presence of ethanol also causes increased water absorption in the fuel. 

Eor a considerable period, >90% of the new cars in Brazil operated on E96 fuel, or a mixture of 96% ethanol and 4% water (82). The engines have high compression ratios (ca 12 1) to utilize the high knock resistance of ethanol and deUver optimum fuel economy. In 1989 more than one-third of Brazil s 10 million automobiles operated on 96% ethanol/4% water fuel. The remainder ran on gasoline blends containing up to 20% ethanol (5). 

When gasoline-powered automobiles are modified to burn a fuel such as ethanol alone, they are known as dedicated ethanol vehicles—risky investments for buyers who have concerns about future availability. For example, Brazil s Proalcool program promoted and heavily subsidized ethanol, and thus dedicated ethanol vehicles, from 1975 to 1988. Once the subsidies were curtailed and then eliminated (estimates of the costs of the subsidy to the government range from 7 to 10 billion), shortages resulted. Many of the owners of ethanol-dedicated vehicles either had to junk or retrofit the vehicles to run on gasoline, and the sales of ethanol-dedicated vehicles went from 50 percent of the market in 1988 to 4 percent by mid-1990. 

Technological changes in the manufacture of power sources are required if they are to run on alternative fuels. The development of alternative fuels depends on automotive manufacturers making alternative fuel engines available while fuel suppliers produce and distribute fuels for these vehicles. Flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs), which are also known as variable fuel vehicles, (VFVs) are designed to use several fuels. Most of the major automobile manufacturers have developed FFV prototypes and many of these use ethanol or methanol as well as gasoline. 

Ethanol is a healthy industry in some parts of the United States and the rest of the world. It is an alternative as an automobile fuel. Brazil has a large ethanol industry, producing about three billion gallons each year from sugar cane. 

Ethanol has a lot of uses fuel, solvent, antifreeze agent, and mood-modifying substance for people. Automobiles, if suitably modified, can run on pure ethanol or, more commonly, on ethanol mixed with gasoline. In the United States gasohol is typically 10% ethanol/90% gasoline. Less conunon is E-85, which, as the name implies, is 85% ethanol. 

The predominant method of ethanol manufacture, at one time, was by fermentation of sugars this method went out of use in the 1930s. However, com fermentation is now a source of 92% of all ethanol and is used for gasohol, a 10% alcohol 90% gasoline blend used for automobile fuel. 

Hyunok Lee, Ethanol s Evolving Role in the U.S. Automobile Fuel Market, Industrial Uses of Agricultural Materials, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Energy, June 1993. 

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