Growth Of Ethanol Expansion Programs In America
The ethanol is a renewable fuel which is now used in vehicles in countries like the USA, Canada and some other South American countries. They have launched Ethanol Expansion Program (EEP) to promote the domestic production of ethanol.
There are several reasons for which the ethanol expansion programs are being undertaken by these governments. This is a renewable transport fuel and at the same time it reduces the emission of harmful greenhouse gases (GHG) by a considerable amount. Global Warming is the greatest threat to the present world today. All of us are aware about the bad consequences of such a great threat to climate change.
These programs undertaken by governments are ready to finance constructions of new ethanol plants where more production facilities will increase. This renewable fuel can be produced easily from biomass and they burn completely and efficiently than other regular fuels like diesel and gasoline. Ethanol also burns more cleanly.
The other concepts and benefits regarding this expansion plans are- the grains and other biomass which is grown to produce this fuel absorb carbon dioxide from the environment. And the emissions produced from burning of ethanol and its conversion from biomass is very less compared to greenhouse emissions of petroleum and its by-products. It has been found that ethanol which is also called E-10 is produced from corn and leads to 3 to 4 percent less emissions of GHG than diesel and gasoline. And the E-10 produced from agricultural cellulose materials and wood produce 6-8 percent less emission than gasoline. All these benefits have boosted the campaign of ethanol expansion in these countries. According to economists and sociologists the ethanol expansion has other benefits too. It can contribute a lot to economic prosperity and can create lots of job opportunities in the rural sector. And these countries have enough resources of biomass like large crop fields, and wide spread forests which can be replanted after felling of trees for ethanol production. Ethanol as alternative fuel has gained a lot of popularity and people too have shown larger interest in this economic fuel which can be regenerated from renewable resources of nature. But there is one more school of thought that does not support expansion plan of ethanol. It believes that- for commercial production of ethanol farmers may give up the practice of producing regular food crops and others. Illegal measures may prevail while immature forests may be destroyed thus affecting the ecosystem and biodiversity. Whatever may be the criticism it has been seen that a proper plan can set up better infrastructure of ethanol production as the alternative fuel to gasoline and diesel. In 2007 alone, the US has seen a steep rise in the setting up of ethanol units. While there were only 56 ethanol units in the US in 2006, the number rose to 100 ethanol units in 2007. As a result companies which were reluctant to ethanol expansion plans are giving a yet another thought to set up organic production units of this economical and eco-friendly fuel of the future.
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