Ethanol Fuel

What is ethanol?
Ethanol is made by fermenting and then distilling starch and sugar crops -- maize, sorghum, potatoes, wheat, sugar-cane, even cornstalks, fruit and vegetable waste.

The benefits
Ethanol is a much cleaner fuel than petrol (gasoline):

• It is a renewable fuel made from plants
• It is not a fossil-fuel: manufacturing it and burning it does not increase the greenhouse effect
• It provides high octane at low cost as an alternative to harmful fuel additives
• Ethanol blends can be used in all petrol engines without modifications
• Ethanol is biodegradable without harmful effects on the environment
• It significantly reduces harmful exhaust emissions
• Ethanol's high oxygen content reduces carbon monoxide levels more than any other oxygenate: by 25-30%, according to the US EPA
• Ethanol blends dramatically reduce emissions of hydrocarbons, a major contributor to the depletion of the ozone layer
• High-level ethanol blends reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 20%
• Ethanol can reduce net carbon dioxide emissions by up to 100% on a full life-cycle basis
• High-level ethanol blends can reduce emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) by 30% or more (VOCs are major sources of ground-level ozone formation)
• As an octane enhancer, ethanol can cut emissions of cancer-causing benzene and butadiene by more than 50%
• Sulphur dioxide and Particulate Matter (PM) emissions are significantly decreased with ethanol.

Backyard ethanol
As with biodiesel, you don't have to be a corporation to make ethanol -- you can make fuel alcohol in your backyard, and many people are doing just that, and running their vehicles on clean-burning alcohol instead of gasoline, all around the world.

Ethanol is greener than gasoline
Ethanol is a very high octane fuel, replacing lead as an octane enhancer in gasoline. Fuels that burn too quickly make the engine "knock". The higher the octane rating, the slower the fuel burns, and the less likely the engine will knock. When ethanol is blended with gasoline, the octane rating of the petrol goes up by three full points, without using harmful additives. Adding ethanol to gasoline "oxygenates" the fuel, adding oxygen to the fuel mixture so that it burns more completely and reduces polluting emissions such as carbon monoxide. Ethanol and ETBE oxygenator, made from ethanol, are much safer than the toxic and polluting MTBE fossil-fuel-derived oxygenator used by oil companies.