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In the end ethanol should indeed disappear as a technology, but right now it is needed. Not as a biofuel, although it is touted as such. Instead it is needed as
by credit_guy 3y ago
In the end ethanol should indeed disappear as a technology, but right now it is needed. Not as a biofuel, although it is touted as such. Instead it is needed as a fuel additive that increases the octane number. Without ethanol we'd need lead, which is obviously a non-starter, or some other additives that generally have more downsides than ethanol (for example MTBE, which is very toxic). As we replace more and more ICE cars with electric cars, we'll stop using ethanol. In the US, this could result in 30 million acres of farm land being freed up to be used for something better.
- WirelessGigabit 3y agoSo how did Europe do it before they started adding ethanol? They had 95 RON / 91 AKI and 98 RON / 93 AKI for the longest time. They only started adding ethanol in the last 5 years.
- credit_guy 3y agoI think the main fuel additive used in Europe is (or was until recently) ETBE, or ethyl tertiary-butyl ether. This additive is similar to MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether), which was the most popular in the world after lead was outlawed, and continues to be used today in a few countries, like Mexico and Venezuela, but which is very toxic. ETBE appears to not be as toxic, but it is derived from ethanol. In the end it's not clear if it's worth the extra chemical processing step to convert ethanol to ETBE, or to just use ethanol directly. The US chose to use ethanol, and it looks like Europe is moving to ethanol too. [1] https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/ci/products/gasoline-octane-improvers-chemical-economics-handbook.html https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/ci/products/ga...