Ethanol

Object from the Future

Cellulosic Ethanol

As a fuel source, cellulosic ethanol emits 80 % less greenhouse gases then conventional gasoline. As a comparison,(corn) standard ethanol only provides 20 % percent reduction in green house gas emmisions. Be it corn or cellulosic based, it is essentially the same fuel. However, order to value the reductions in emmisions the entire production process of enthanol needs to be taken into account.

Technology

"Cellulosic technology refers to the use of bacteria to convert the hard, fibrous content of plants - cellulose and lignin - into starches that can be fermented by other bacteria to produce ethanol." The greatest advantage of this technology, however is the sources of "fibrous plant material" that can be used for the fermentation. Be it industrial,farm, or municipal solid waste it can be converted. Some scientists are currenty working on technology to convert paper sludge into ethanol. Since sludge is a byproduct of paper mills and is deposited into landfills at a going rate of eight dollars per ton, the potential cost savings are enourmous. Overall there are estimates that there are bilions of tons of unused waste that could be turned into ethnol in the United States alone.

Change

Ethanol is already present in around five percent of all gasoline sold in the United States. The technology for delivery does not have to change at all from the current petrol stations. Since the infrastructure is already available, the only inhibitor is the cost of producing cellolusic ethanol.