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The Forum > Article Comments > Ethanol-blended Fuel policies: when will the cheap tricks end? > Comments

Ethanol-blended Fuel policies: when will the cheap tricks end? : Comments

By Anna Cheung, Kristin Flanders and Peter Walker, published 21/10/2003

Anna Cheung, Kristin Flanders and Peter Walker argue that the government's ethanol subsidy policy must change

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Ethanol mixs in fuel are not a bad thing if pure. What they don’t tell you its not possible to be pure unless you buy it in sealed drums direct.

Fact ethanol absorbs water from the air and with contact.

Fact ALL fuel stations have water in the bottom of the tanks. The pickup for fuel in these tanks are not at the bottom, so unless the water isn’t monitored and comes up too high it not a problem. Straight petrol floats on water and doesn’t mix or absorb water.

On the other hand any ethanol mix will come into direct contact with water at all fuel stations, a fact.

So straight away your running a small % of absorbed water through your cars which will effect some parts such a fuel injectors over time.
Posted by vt2vx, Thursday, 12 January 2006 12:04:30 PM
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As an older person I found the info refreshing.
I has just moved from a sugar town to a town next to a manildra factory therefore I am in 2 minds on this subject. While I can see the economical benefits for the farmers to have another avenue for their product and the benefits for the process workers, I like the idea of using the landfill option. Why is the focus on motor vehicle fuel? My suggestion would be to broaden the horizon to use ethanol for the majority of our energy needs. A concerted effort targetting marginal seats of the government would only entrench the subsidy ideology as most producers are in marginal seats. As for the previous post re water then maybe the petrol stations should seal their tanks and stop poluting the fuel they sell.
Posted by JEEP, Monday, 3 July 2006 7:49:44 PM
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Ethanol has been talked about for years in Australia as a means to progress a renewable fuel which can be manufactured here, and can be easily added as a percentage to petrol. Ethanol blended with petrol burns cleaner and reduces our dependence on foreign crude oil.Ethanol is currently used by certain South American countries, as a sustainable renewable fuel which is used in their cars at a 100% level. This has allowed the very large local sugar growers to produce equally large quantities of ethanol, for their local populations and as well save billions of dollars annually in the foreign debt associated with crude oil importation; The economic factors are sure to be multiplied overtime. Australian researchers have recently discovered new ways of fermenting the sugar cane waste sugars, by evolving new yeasts for the job. This now allows for the first time much more Ethanol production from sugar cane waste, and can as well apply to other bio-wastes

Australia produces sugar and is thus capable of producing ethanol. We of course need cars that can operate safely on ethanol blends of 10% and more. Can the new Holden or Ford cars operate on Ethanol? Ethanol can now be used as a fuel in an Ethanol based Fuel Cell. This amazing breakthrough in year 2005, allows ethanol at room temperature to be consumed in a dedicated fuel cell producing “clean” electricity, without combustion. The Ethanol Fuel Cell [EFC] is being co-developed by Italy and the UK, and it is hoped by ~yr 2010 that power and performance will rival the PEM fuel cells of today.

What this can mean is that Ethanol can be used for combustion today and non-combustion tomorrow. Ethanol can thus have its own “Bridge” plan being able to be used today in combustion engines and co-exist with futuristic fuel cells running on Ethanol. The risk associated with Ethanol is thus reduced significantly, as a technology led approach towards future sustainability will embrace it not exclude it
Posted by Mrhydrogen, Wednesday, 30 May 2007 7:58:56 PM
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There is a difference between the CO2 produced by burning ethanol and that produced by burning fossil-fuel derived petrol: in the former case, the carbon is already part of the atmospheric carbon cycle, whereas in the latter case, the carbon is extracted from deep underground where it has been stored for hundreds of millions of years. On that basis, the CO2 produced by burning ethanol is unlikely to add much extra carbon to the atmosphere.
Posted by wizofaus, Tuesday, 7 August 2007 1:30:35 PM
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