Why is ethanol cleaner than gasoline

At the same time, the environmental impacts of producing ethanol have been greatly reduced. Natural gas and electricity use at dry mill ethanol plants has fallen nearly 40 percent since , while consumptive water use has been cut in half.

This has occurred while the amount of ethanol produced from a bushel has increased. Producers are getting 15 percent more ethanol from a bushel of corn than 20 years ago. The result? A smaller carbon footprint and an increase in energy efficiency. Ethanol use reduces greenhouse gas emissions by percent compared to gasoline—even when hypothetical land-use change emissions are included. By displacing hydrocarbon substances like aromatics in gasoline, ethanol also helps reduce emissions of air toxics, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, and exhaust hydrocarbons.

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Secondary sources. I should have interviewed more experts and read more up-to-date science before publishing that first piece. The road to knowledge — at least in my case — often winds through the valley of ignorance.

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By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Is ethanol really worse than gasoline? The debate, revisited. Reddit Pocket Flipboard Email. The great debate Scientists and policy wonks have been telling each other they are dead wrong about ethanol for more than a decade. How can you grow more corn without plowing new land? So how can biofuels get around that? By increasing yields and displacing meat production. Ethanol is responsible for the big shift of the gray line in the mids.

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