Alcohol Fuel

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Alcohol Fuel
by Dharmendra Kapri \| 17-04-2014 18:56 0
Ethanol (95% pure) can be used either directly as an automobile fuel or as 10-15% blend with petrol. The mixture of alcohol and petrol is called gasohol. The existing petrol engines can be modified to burn alcohol or gasohol. Brazil is the only country where alcohol has been very successfully used as motor fuel. Many other countries such as USA, East Europian countries and several countries in Africa are now trying to substitute alcohol for petrol (partially of fully) The ethanol is commercially produced by the process of alcoholic fermentation in which the yeasts convert sugar into alcohol. The common crops such as sugar cane, potato, maize, sugar beet and tapioca provide the raw materials for alcohol production. These crops are, therefore, called energy crops. Raising of these energy crops is called energy cropping. The table given below indicates the average yield and alcohol production by energy cropping :-

Former E-gen Ambassador Dharmendra Kapri

says :
Thank you Dharmendra for the info.
I understand that there are pros and cons to this idea. The use of common crops for fuel as the case of alcohol resulting from the conversion of biomass, mainly from plants, has been debated a lot. There is a permanent battle "food vs fuel". The biomass cropping vs e.g. corn cropping it is said that has driven to the increment of the price of corn or rice etc.
The question is: What will be the future challenge for the humanity, the challenge for food or for fuel?
Posted 18-04-2014 23:02