Ethanol fuel in the United States
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(This is a subsidiary of the Ethanol fuel article.)
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[edit] History of Ethanol in the US
In 1826, Samuel Morey, experimented with a prototypical internal combustion engine that used ethanol (combined with turpentine and ambient air then vaporized) as fuel. At the time, his discovery was overlooked mostly due to the success of steam power. And while ethanol was known of for decades, it received little attention as a fuel until 1860 when Nicholas Otto began experimenting with internal combustion engines.
In 1859, oil was found in Pennsylvania which provided a new supply of fuel for the United States. A popular fuel in the U.S. before petroleum was a blend of alcohol and turpentine called "camphene", also known as "burning fluid." With the discovery of a ready supply of oil, kerosene's popularity grew.
[edit] Ethanol energy balance
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The neutrality and factual accuracy of this section are disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. |
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The total energy needed to produce ethanol from corn grain — including fermentation, fertilizing, fuel for farm tractors, harvesting and transporting the grain, building and operating an ethanol plant, and the natural gas used to distill corn sugars into alcohol — is the subject of some debate. Several studies, including one at Berkely and another at Cornell, have shown there is a negative return from the total process. However, no peer-reviewed academic studies show that ethanol production requires more energy than it consumes. According to figures from the state of Minnesota, the ratio for return from corn-based ethanol production is about 1.34:1, or that corn ethanol yields 26% more energy than is used to make it. The return from traditional petroleum-based fuel (gasoline) is .86:1, or a net loss. [1] and see below).
[edit] Debate
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The neutrality and factual accuracy of this section are disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. |
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Studies by Cornell University ecology professor David Pimentel and Tad Patzek of the University of California-Berkeley have concluded that the use of corn ethanol for fuel would have a negative net energy balance. Pimentel's study was disputed by industry groups. Still, in August 2003 (and again in March 2005), he stated in a Cornell bulletin that production of ethanol from corn takes 29% more energy than it produces, ethanol from Switchgrass requires 45% more energy and ethanol from wood biomass requires 57% more energy that it produces [2].
