PresentEthanol480
- 1. ETHANOL TRAVIS ACKERSON FERRIS STATE UNIVERSITY ALTERNATIVE FUELS – AUTO 480
- 2. INTRODUCTION Ethanol is one of the leading candidates to be the new break out fuel for our everyday personal vehicle transportation. • Ethanol has been around for many years, but will it continue to be? • What is the history of ethanol? • Quotes • How does it stack up to the other alternatives? • Octane • Emissions • Where is it made? • Is it political? • Conclusion
- 3. ETHANOL HAS BEEN AROUND FOR MANY YEARS Before the car, ethanol was used for house lighting From the first automobile to the start of the self driving car Many have been skeptic and many have supported. Ethanol has been an option throughout
- 4. HISTORY Henry Ford was the founder of Ford Motor Company He told a reporter that ethanol was “the fuel of the future” in 1925 Henry Ford : “The fuel of the future is going to come from fruit like that sumac out by the road, or from apples, weeds, sawdust — almost anything,” he said. “There is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter that can be fermented. There’s enough alcohol in one year’s yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for a hundred years.”
- 5. HISTORY CONTINUED Mr. Ford is known as one the greatest automotive innovators ever. Different engines were prototyped for full ethanol and flex fuel. The Ford Model T engine had an adjustable carburetor and a spark advance to be able to switch to ethanol.
- 7. HISTORY CONTINUED Alexander Graham Bell and Charles F. Kettering are highly regarded innovators and inventors from this time period Bell called alcohol “a wonderfully clean-burning fuel that can be produced from farm crops, agricultural wastes, and even garbage .” Charles Kettering noted that the “most direct route which we now know for converting energy from its source, the sun, into a material suitable for use as a fuel is through vegetation to alcohol.” Excitement of recycling was put to the side due to the penny cheap gasoline that was available at the time
- 8. FOOD VS FUEL The thought many people had was that the rich were taking the food from the poor and turning it into fuel for their horseless carriage
- 9. FOOD VS FUEL
- 10. OCTANE Octane is a hydrocarbon that is volatile and very flammable. The octane rating of ethanol is 108, which is much higher than most other fuels especially that of regular unleaded gasoline that has an octane rating number of 87. Octane is an index of the fuel's ability to resist engine knock also known as piston slap. Ethanol has a much higher octane rating which is why it is added to regular to obtain many benefits. What are they? A cheap octane booster, decrease on the dependence of foreign oil, cheaper prices, and an investment for a growing American industry.
- 11. EMISSIONS Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is demanding better exhaust air coming out of the tail pipe. Our vehicles are seen as the causes for air pollution and smog, and they do not help, especially in heavily traveled areas. Ethanol is known for less carbon and therefore has much less harmful emissions.
- 12. PRODUCTION Production of Ethanol is being processed all across America and plants are also currently in new construction. Most plants can be found in the Corn Belt states (Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan). Ethanol can be made from many different things including corn, grains beets, potatoes, grapes, beer, and garbage. In Brazil, where ethanol is the primary fuel, they make it from sugar cane because its contents are high in sugar. Ethanol is being produced all across this great nation. The infrastructure is there to meet the demands.
- 13. POLITICS? Obama adviser suggests changes to ethanol mandate Jennifer Dlouhy wrote on biofuels and politics on Wednesday, March 11th. She reported that the creators of advanced ethanol using algae, animal fat and non-food plants have cut ties with the traditional corn ethanol makers. This is part of the changing in biofuels mandates.
- 14. POLITICS CONT.. President in the Advanced Biofuels Association, Michael McAdams, made a speech stating that they have swatted away tough opposition. One large point he made was that he presumes going forward that first-generation ethanol will not meet federal mandates. The Advanced Biofuels Association would like to extend the program for more advanced ethanol to 2022 for more time in testing and also to encourage investors. His proposal also encouraged refiners not to use waiver credits to meet quota.
- 15. POLITICS CONT.. Large fears are that if money is not being made then the oil industry would have to finance the biofuel future. Vice President Brown of Tesoro Corporation said “At the end of the day, facing a likely future that calls for less carbon- intensive fuels, a viable advanced biofuel industry that offers a menu of fully fungible alternative fuels is a desirable outcome for many refiners.” They are sure their services will be needed later and the demand will rise but the matchup of the timelines is unclear.
- 16. CONCLUSION With the spike of gas prices a couple years ago, everyone was scrambling for all different alternative options. The time will soon come when the spike happens again and maybe this time it will scare people enough that their hunger for change will grow and the a new player will fully step in. Some believe that ethanol could step into this role very easily and it will take nothing but time. Fuel of the future, or it will always be the fuel of the future?
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