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Back to Part 1 Renewable Energy: Ethanol: The ChallengesAs is to be expected, there are some downsides to increasing the production and use of ethanol to power motor vehicles:Increased Food PricesNow that corn and wheat in particular are being used to make fuel as well as food, worldwide demand and hence prices for these commodities have been rising steadily for the past few years. As a result, the price of flour, bread, animal feed, cereals and a host of grain byproducts has been rising sharply with obvious consequences for poorer countries struggling to feed their populations. This situation will only get worse in the future as the demand for and consumption of ethanol continues to exceed worldwide production capacity.Agriculture & The EnvironmentThe current attractiveness of growing ethanol raw materials may be causing farmers in the United States and elsewhere to turn away from other traditional food crops in favour of this new cash crop, resulting in the potential for obvious shortages in certain commodities if this situation is not carefully controlled. The problem is that expansion in agricultural output is not achievable overnight and, as a consequence, there is going to be a significant mismatch between supply and demand, resulting in shortages and higher prices for certain non-ethanol related agricultural products.In addition, environmentalists fear that future expansion of the ethanol industry will lead to massive deforestation of wooded areas and other natural habitats as countries race to ramp up cultivation of raw materials to meet burgeoning consumer demand. We have seen the devastation and environmental challenges caused by widespread clear-cutting of forests in the United States, Canada and other parts of the world to satisfy the paper and building materials industries. The truth is that massive areas of land will have to be cultivated in order to provide sufficient raw materials to satisfy future demand and this is going to create new environmental as well as land use issues for us to deal with. Fuel PricesMaybe you thought that using ethanol would dramatically lower your car's fuel bill? Maybe not. The raw materials for ethanol and the product itself are traded internationally like any other commodity and, as such, the prices for these products rise and fall in concert with pertroleum prices. In other words, oil prices go up, ethanol and its raw materials follow suit, with the converse also holding true. Since global commitment to moving away from dependence on fossil fueled vehicles also rises and falls according to the price of a barrel of oil, vehicle manufacturers have been cautious about making big changes to their products. This is one of the reasons why worldwide conversion to ethanol-gasoline blends or straight ethanol has been slow.Technical IssuesEthanol does not store as easily as its petroleum counterpart. There have been reports of problems such as storage tank contamination caused by water condensation, and this may be due to the natural changes in temperature caused by daytime heating among other reasons. This is also an issue for the fuel in your car's tank and the manufacturers, along with the fuel suppliers, continue to develop methods of addressing this challenge.Also, ethanol would appear to be fairly corrosive and specialized storage tanks as well as pipeline infrastructure may be required. On a global level, this is going to be very, very costly and it also helps to explain why the march towards increased production and use of ethanol has been so slow. In temperate climates there have been reports of problems starting vehicles using an ethanol-gasoline mix in colder weather (11 degrees Celcius or less). This is because ethanol blends struggle to achieve enough vapour pressure for the fuel to evaporate and spark the ignition during cold weather. Obviously, this issue would not normally affect us in the Caribbean. A variety of solutions to this problem has already been proposed and it is not felt that this will be a big issue going forward. Ethanol for BarbadosIn recent years no clear policy for the use of ethanol in vehicles in Barbados has been forthcoming from the authorities. It would be interesting to hear what, if any, plans exist for its introduction here. Any new information on this subject as it relates to Barbados is welcome and can be sent to us here; it will of course be made available to the public via this website. Back to Part 1 | |||||||||||||
