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Originally Posted by Mr K
So how do you like to get transported from A to B, and how do you carbon offset it Mr/Ms/Miss/Mrs Nomadking?
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What's that got to do with my post?
The claim is that as Ethanol has less carbon than the petrol it is replacing, it therefore produces less CO2. CO2 is effectively "extracted" in the production of the Ethanol. It might even be the case than more CO2 is produced overall.
The central problem with using Ethanol, is that it absorbs water, and that can damage engines. You can't distil 100% Ethanol.
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With that said, ethanol is hygroscopic, which is a pocket-protector way of saying that it readily takes up water. In fact, if you poured 50mL of pure ethanol into a glass and then added 50mL of pure, distilled water, you’d only end up with about 96mL of solution (and a pretty rubbish cocktail), due to the fact that water and ethanol get in close and form bonds, much like people do after exposure to ethanol.
The problem for your car is that water – outside of your radiator and wiper bottle – is generally a bad thing, rusting and corroding delicate fuel system and engine parts that were never designed to come anywhere near water. And if you drive infrequently, extra ethanol in your tank will absorb extra water from the atmosphere and separate the fuel into straight petrol and an alcohol-water mix. The ethanol-water mix will sink to the bottom of the tank, and then, if you ever run low on petrol, you’ll pump water-diluted alcohol into your engine. And no one likes watered down booze.
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