Ethanol Added to Gasoline

    Anonymous CJ gives us a little background on the use of ethanol as a partial replacement for gasoline.
    "Ethanol in motor fuel has a history going back to the 1970s. At that time, Sen. Birch Bayh of Indiana conceived the idea of converting corn to ethanol and blending it into motor fuel. In those days it was called "gasohol" and the primary purpose was to provide farmers with a way to use otherwise uncultivated corn acreage to their economic advantage.

Back in the 1960s and earlier, smog was a serious air pollution problem in major cities, particularly Los Angeles. Two developments emerged in the 1970s and early 1980s that essentially eliminated smog. The first was the use of catalytic converters which burned the carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons in car engine exhaust to carbon dioxide and water. The second was the use of an oxygenated compound in motor fuel to improve the combustion of the fuel in the cylinders. The first oxygenated compound of choice was MTBE. As it turned out, there was leakage of gasoline from some underground storage tanks, and the MTBE found this way into potable water supplies. The principal health problem turned out to be taste and some other minor effects. However, the State of California banned the use of MTBE in motor fuels. That ban was later extended to the entire country.

In the 1980s and 1990s fuel injection became standard on automobile engines. The combination of catalytic converters and fuel injection totally eliminated unburned carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons from automotive exhaust. Smog was eliminated in most major cities in a relatively short time. However, by that time the Congress in its wisdom had decided that ethanol should be used as a component of all motor fuels. The fact that smog had been eliminated was set aside, and the Congress decided that ethanol would be a way for the United States to reduce its import of crude oil from other countries. That is a fantasy. As a result, the country is now facing the current ecological and economic disaster generated by the mandated conversion of corn to ethanol for use in motor fuel.

I trust this bit of history has been instructive."