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It has extensive industrial uses as a solvent in flavorings, colorings, medicines and perfumes. It has long been used as a fuel for heating and lighting and in internal combustion engines. A little known fact is that Henry Ford designed the Model T initially to run on ethanol only.
Using a blend of ethanol with gasoline yields many pollutants which produces far more ground level ozone. Ethanol is said to create 2.14 times the amount of ozone as gasoline exhaust. The result is 1.7 times the amount of smog-generation when compared with gasoline.
Blended fuel requires special adaptation to engines and tanks of cars as ethanol is highly corrosive particularly to aluminum and rubber.
Notwithstanding such alarming statistics, there is a global move towards increasing use of ethanol to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels. The European Union has announced that it intends to replace 10 percent of its transport fuel with biofuels by 2020. The United States is already on track to exceed Congress’ 2005 goal of doubling the amount of ethanol used in motor fuels to 7.5 billion gallons by 2012.
Most gas available in the US is already blended with 10 percent ethanol, which boosts the octane rating but at a cost. A 10 percent mix, manufacturers claim, does no harm to the engine, but the popular belief is that it is highly unsuitable for use on older vehicles.
Many states require that pumps dispensing blended fuel have a sign to that effect, with a declaration of the ethanol percentage.
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