Corn from the garden as fuel for vehicles?

2001/03/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Ingurumena

To reduce the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere, a synthetic MTBE additive (methyl-t-butyl ether) is added to gasoline. But this substance contaminates groundwater and surface water. Therefore, in the United States it will be banned soon and experts will have to look for more than replace the MTBE. However, farmers have been cautious and have proposed ethanol (ethyl alcohol), which is produced in the fermentation of corn as substitutes. Thus, the corn harvest would become an excellent business for farmers.

Ethanol has been used before as a fuel, but being much more expensive than oil, it was not very successful (in Brazil itself, where they draw from sugar cane the alcohol that vehicles use as fuel). Now, with the new emissions legislation, it can be a good time to set a new course in the market. Meanwhile, it seems that in Europe there is another wind. The year 2005 aims to reduce the amount of benzene of oil by around 75%, in what is understood as carcinogenic, replacing it with MTBE.