Fifteen Myths about Bioethanol
The most common reactions from people the first time they hear about ethanol and its potential as a substitute for petrol and diesel fuels are:
It sounds too good to be true.
Like all news that sounds too good to be true, incorrect information can spread easily. It is important to examine the information and scrutinize all the facts in detail. That is why we have made a list of fifteen of the most common myths about ethanol.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any comments or questions:
BioAlcohol Fuel Foundation
www.baff.info
info@baff.info
Myth
It?s much more expensive to buy a flexi-fuel vehicle than one that runs on petrol.
Fact
Technically, flexi-fuel technology is not very different from the regular petrol-driven engine. This means the cost for automobile producers is not especially high. Today, automobile producers charge an extra fee for flexible-fuel technology. Once production picks up, that extra cost will drop to around zero.
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Myth
It?s more expensive to use bioethanol than petrol.
Fact
A flexi-fuel vehicle uses 30?40 per cent more fuel when it runs on E85 than when it runs on petrol. But if you calculate using the current petrol price, it is cheaper to drive a certain distance on the environmentally friendly E85 than it is to drive the same distance on regular petrol.
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Myth
Flexi-fuel vehicles have a higher insurance premium.
Fact
Many insurance companies offer a premium that is up to 20 per cent lower for a flexi-fuel vehicle than for a petrol-driven one.
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Myth
It is difficult to find E85 fuel pumps.
Fact
(Insert information on fuel stations in your region. Today and planned in the future.)
In addition, flexi-fuel vehicles can drive just as well on regular petrol as they can on E85, or any mixture of E85 and petrol. That means you never have to worry about finding a service station that sells E85. The more petrol you put in your tank, however, the more you will be contributing to society?s dependence on oil and the greenhouse effect.
Click here for a list of Filling Stations.
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Myth
Bioethanol is much more flammable than petrol.
Fact
Petrol, diesel fuel, and bioethanol should be handled with care. Petrol and ethanol are classified the same in terms of flammability, and they are covered by the same regulations, but their flammability has somewhat differing characteristics. All boat owners know it is preferable to use bioethanol in a gas stove than petrol, which burns much more intensely. The experience of twenty years of large-scale usage in Brazil and the US has revealed no greater risk of fire in using bioethanol rather than petrol.
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Myth
A flexi-fuel vehicle?s performance worsens when running on bioethanol.
Fact
Bioethanol has a much higher octane rating than petrol. That is why it is possible to get so much horsepower out of the engine. Some automobile models gain up to 20 per cent horsepower despite the face that bioethanol has a lower energy content than petrol. That is why vehicular performance is at least as good when running on E85 as when running on petrol.
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Myth
It is difficult to start a flexi-fuel vehicle when the weather is cold.
Fact
When your automobile has been outside all night and the temperature has dropped to -15°C, it can be difficult to start a flexi-fuel vehicle in the morning. All flexi-fuel vehicles are therefore equipped with an electric engine heater (head-bolt or block heater) as standard. When the temperature falls below freezing at night, we recommend you use the engine heater. Then you will avoid all the problems of starting with a cold engine.
Not all of us have access to an electrical outlet in our parking spaces, so research is underway to find the optimal cold-start option. The current generation of flexi-fuel engines start well in test without engine heaters at temperatures as cold as -15°C. At -20°C the vehicle starts, but it takes longer. At -40°C, and an hour maximum usage of the electric engine heater, the vehicle starts without any difficulties.
If the electric engine heater is not an option for you, there is another way to improve your chances of starting up at low temperatures, and that is to fill the tank with a little extra petrol. If you have 25 per cent petrol in the tank, the vehicle can be started up just like any other petrol-driven vehicle.
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Myth
The buyer does not get the same warranty protection when buying a flexi-fuel vehicle.
Fact
As long as you service your vehicle as recommended, there is no difference in the warranty protection compared with a petrol-driven vehicle.
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Myth
Bioethanol can?t possibly contribute to stabilizing the greenhouse effect.
Fact
Bioethanol is a renewable fuel. That means the carbon dioxide that is released when the fuel is ignited adds no extra carbon dioxide to that which naturally exists in the atmosphere. Renewable carbon dioxide does not contribute to the growing greenhouse effect because it is a part of nature?s own ecosystem.
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Myth
Flexi-fuel vehicles can?t be more environmentally friendly, since they emit carbon dioxide.
Fact
Bioethanol is produced from plants and plant products such as wood pulp, sugarcane, corn, etc. This means the carbon dioxide that comes from bioethanol is renewable and is part of a closed loop or ecosystem. In the closed loop, the plants on earth recycle carbon dioxide, again and again.
Fossil-fuel carbon dioxide that comes from petrol, diesel fuel, and natural gas is part of an open loop. It comes from deposits far under the earth?s surface. That means it adds new carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. A net excess of carbon dioxide is thus created, since no living plants can compensate for it.
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Myth
That the production of ethanol is a threat to the rainforests of Brazil.
Fact
In Brazil, bioethanol is produced from sugarcane. It is very troubling that the rainforest is threatened, but that has nothing to do with the cultivation of sugarcane. Brazil is a very large country, and it takes five hours to fly from the northern to the southern border. Sugarcane is cultivated several hundred miles away from the Amazonas rainforest. To make sure the environmental and quality requirements of bioethanol are met, top Swedish, European, and Brazilian researchers are cooperating with the Brazilian government and the International Energy Agency on the initiative of the BioAlcohol Fuel Foundation (BAFF) to establish specifications of requirements, criteria, and rules for the production of ethanol.
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Myth
There isn?t sufficient raw material to produce enough bioethanol to meet the needs of the growing transport sector.
Fact
That depends on the time perspective you choose to look at the demand and supply of ethanol. Given today?s situation of vast acres of arable land lying fallow, today?s tested methods for the extraction of ethanol from the raw material, and today?s knowledge of cultivation?well, yes, then there is not enough raw material to fuel every vehicle on ethanol.
But if we look instead to the opportunities of the future, we see a completely different picture.
The first point we need to understand is the enormous potential the sun gives us. One hour of collected sunlight is the equivalent of as much energy as the entire population of the world uses in one year. If we can improve our knowledge about how to make use of more solar power in what we cultivate, in other words, we will suddenly have an enormous source of raw material available for the production of ethanol. Everything that grows contains sugar?which can be fermented into ethanol.
The second point is that we are getting better and better at utilizing the sugar that exists in what is grown. Through research we are constantly expanding our knowledge about how to get more ethanol out of every ton of forestry waste, for example.
The third point is that there are vast acres of arable land in the EU that we are paying enormous sums of money to keep out of cultivation. If we instead used them for the profitable cultivation of raw material for the production of ethanol, we would not only be helping the environment but improving the balance of EU?s agricultural budget.
When we combine these three points, chances are great that we will have enough raw material for all the ethanol we need, especially in a few years when many more flexible-fuel vehicles are driving on the roads of Europe and the rest of the world.
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Myth
Flexi-fuel vehicles are just a parentheses in the transition to even more environmentally friendly vehicles.
Fact
The flexi-fuel technology has a positive effect on the environment. Because it is possible to reduce harmful emissions of carbon dioxide by up to 75 per cent, it is absolutely one of the most environmentally friendly technologies on the market today. It is also one of the most accessible technologies, since it doesn?t cost much more than regular petrol.
It is not the ultimate goal, however. We will not be satisfied until we can come up with vehicles that have no harmful emissions at all. These automobiles exist today and are called fuel-cell vehicles. They will not be available on the market on a large scale for another thirty years. We cannot wait that long to break society?s dependence on oil. Flexible-fuel vehicles are an excellent transition to fuel-cell vehicles.
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Myth
It is not possible to turn bioethanol into hydrogen.
Fact
The bioethanol distribution network that is being developed for flexi-fuel vehicles can be used for the distribution of hydrogen in the future. By installing reformers at service stations, it will be possible to obtain hydrogen directly from ethanol. When you reform ethanol, you get two gases: hydrogen and renewable carbon dioxide. The hydrogen will be used to fuel the fuel-cell vehicles and the carbon dioxide will be released to the ecosystem.
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Myth
Bioethanol is not the best step from oil to hydrogen.
Fact
By introducing bioethanol, a link will be created between the fuel-distribution systems of today and tomorrow. A changeover straight from oil to hydrogen would involve enormous costs and extensive practical difficulties.
Since the demand for hydrogen will be very small for a long transitional period while investment in the distribution system will need to be very large, bioethanol is the solution that will reduce uncertainty for investors and thereby speed up the changeover.
All these service stations need to sell hydrogen to fuel cell vehicles is to install a reformer. As the number of fuel-cell vehicles increases on the market, the demand for hydrogen will grow, and it will be possible to install reformers at more service stations.
In other words, bioethanol can fuel the flexi-fuel vehicles of today (which are on the market and already reducing harmful emissions by 75 per cent) and at the same time pave the way for the use of hydrogen to run the zero-emission vehicles of the future.
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