Ethanol vs. MTBE

  • Drunk on Ethanol by Ted Williams, Audubon, Aug 2004.
    “Ethanol sep­a­rates from gaso­line when it encoun­ters mois­ture in pipes and stor­age tanks; so unlike gaso­line oxy­genat­ed with MTBE, gaso­hol can­not pass through exist­ing pipelines. Instead, ethanol—which costs three and a half times as much as gaso­line to pro­duce and yields 20 per­cent less energy—must be shipped sep­a­rate­ly and mixed on-site. And because ethanol evap­o­rates so rapid­ly, it can be added only to a spe­cial and expen­sive ‘blend­stock’ of gaso­line.”

    “In addi­tion to show­ing that there are ‘no envi­ron­men­tal ben­e­fits’ to ethanol, sci­ence clear­ly shows that there are enor­mous envi­ron­men­tal costs. For exam­ple, the gen­er­al use of ethanol sig­nif­i­cant­ly increas­es air pol­lu­tion. Ethanol evap­o­rates faster than gaso­line. So while gaso­line refor­mu­lat­ed with ethanol may release less car­bon monox­ide, it releas­es more volatile organ­ic com­pounds, hydro­car­bons, and nitro­gen oxides.”

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