Ethanol, petrol cars emit same emissions – report
September 17, 2009 by Matt Brogan
Cars running on sugarcane derived ethanol can produce as many harmful pollutants as those using ordinary petrol, according a study published by Brazil’s environment ministry.
But the report on the emissions of the cars on Brazil’s roads did not count carbon dioxide emissions.
“We want to make sure that customers are aware of pollutant emissions when they buy a car,” said Brazilian Environment Minister, Mr Carlos Minc.
The study ranked emissions based of a scale of “green grades” that measured three pollutant gases that did not produce climate change but did affect the health of a country’s population: carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide.
The green grade scale, ranging from 0 to 10, did not count carbon emissions, which were the main driver of global warming, because emissions from burning ethanol were offset by the carbon dioxide that sugar cane absorbed as it grew, the study said.
The research also examined 250 “flex-fuel” cars, which used both ethanol and petrol and constituted about 85 per cent of all cars on the road in Brazil.
Among those receiving the lowest scores, eight were cars running on ethanol, including several with “flex” engines, the study said, though all of the models examined met Brazil’s standards for maximum emissions levels in 2008.
Environmental group Greenpeace welcomed the report, but an official with the group’s climate change campaign in Brazil, Joao Talochhi said, “when it comes to public health, the Brazilian Government should invest in non-polluting vehicle technology”.
With news.com.au
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Didn’t we already know this?
Ethanol is effectively man-made petroleum. Our renewable “oil”.
I never got the impression that is was greener… though now you mention it, it does get delivered via a green petrol bowser…. but really… people didn’t,…. I mean, … did they?!
Ethanol fuel is just an alternative to petrol to make people feel better about driving their cars. It isn’t really a long term solution to all the global climate problems.
I think V8 Supercars is a prime example of this since they changed to E85. Sure they emit less CO2 but because they need to burn so much more of it to get the same performance than they would petrol they are only saving something minor like 2-3% in their CO2 emissions. Looks good for marketing, but that is about it.
Yes but the point of ethanol is that it is entirely renewable and does reduce or dependace on foreign oil. Lets worry about pollutant later as motor vehicles dont contribute as much as industry. We have to stop using so much oil. Simple as that.
Oil is old carbon extracted from below the earth and released into the atmosphere. Ethanol is carbon extracted from the air by a plant and then re-released with little carbon net gain.
I don’t think ethanol is the ultimate answer but if it means we are reducing our dependency on oil then this must be beneficial.
Sugar cane, like many other plants get their nitrogen from ammonia, nitrite or nitrate in the soil. There are only some plants which are able to absorb nitrogen oxides for their source of nitrogen. Doesn’t carbon monoxide just mix with oxygen eventually anyway to form carbon dioxide?
Using ethonal in a standard car is a waste.
Ethanol needs a motor with a compression ratio of around 14:1, otherwise the performance and economy is poor.
And it also quickens the rate of recking engine components in the engine if you use ethanol compared to conventional petrol. Such as spark plugs need to replaced a lot more.
But if an engine is made purely for ethanol then it’ll all be fine. E85 will provied more power as it has more octane and can be compressed much higher compared to petrol.
The simple answer to reducing our reliance on foreign oil is to use LPG surely? We must have HEAPS of since given we’re selling boat loads off to china for next to nothing.
sure it’s not renewable, and probably isn’t any greener, but it’s cheaper – and with the new technology available we can get goos power from it. If the government mandated that all fuel stations stock LPG, then surely we could build dedicated LPG engines that were more efficient (since they don’t need to run petrol at all)?
Using ethanol is short-sighted in my opinion – we’re better off growing FOOD. What happens when we have a shortage of ethanol production due to severe drought or whatever – oops; we’ll be forced to import grain etc, along with all the risks of foreign bugs destroying our local ecosystems…nice.
Logic – “The formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning”.