Ethanol Fuels

Quiz Answers

Did You Get Them Right?

Question 1

Ethanol is produced from starches, which are essentially just sugars right? So why can’t we use animal fats to produce ethanol-type fuels?

Answer: "Animal fats can be used to produce a kind of fuel." Actually animal fats can be used to produce a kind of fuel known as biodiesel. 


Question 2

Ethanol is the same as alcohol, so if E100 became widely used why wouldn’t we see people siphoning off their gasoline tanks for a drink?

Answer: "Ethanol is mixed with gasoline during production in order to make it unfit for consumption." Although other reasons are possible, the primary reason is because ethanol is mixed with gasoline during production to avoid taxes on alcohol production, sale and transportation.

Question 3

Ethanol has some major drawbacks, some of which include increased soil degradation. Why would this occur?

Answer: "All of the above" As explained on this website, all three reasons are possible.

Question 4

"This makes no sense!" Todd cries after reading the section on ethanol production.  "How can we obtain more energy than we put into something?" How would you answer him?

Answer: "'Free' energy sources, like the energy obtained from the sun, are not considered in those calculations."  Although Dr. Wang did include a factor that reduced the production energy cost by considering a factor for the biproducts, for the sake of argument we did not include it in our calculations. 
 

Question 5

Ann has not considered the fact that her vehicle will require more E10 to travel the same distance as she used to on regular gasoline.  When this is considered, her vehicle will produce more carbon dioxide than her friend's hybrid.