Liquid fuel: what next-alcohol
Alcohol fuels offer promising potential for transportation and industrial application. Alcohol, either ethanol or methanol, can be synthesized from a variety of plentiful domestic resources including urban waste, timber, agricultural waste and surpluses, coal and even algae. Alcohol can be immediately integrated into our present energy system - through blending with gasoline as an automotive fuel, as a pure fuel in test fleets, as an industrial turbine and utility peak-turbine fuel, and for use as a base chemical for plastics and synthetic fabrics. The multiplicity of end-use possibilities as well as its non-polluting characteristics make alcohol a valuable biomass fuel. Because of alcohol's interchangeable role as a fuel or industrial chemical, it appears more economically viable than many other potential liquid synfuels. Additionally, one of the only ways to produce an environmentally acceptable fuel from coal may be through its synthesis into alcohol. Because of the varied resource base and its possible implementation in a centralized or decentralized system, alcohol can be adapted to the needs of most geographical regions. The United States has very few near term liquid fuel options. Clearly shale oil and other liquid synfuels cannot be commercialized in the immediate future. US balance of payments and the decline in the value of the dollar will not be decelerated unless foreign petroleum purchases can be offset. Time is running out for the US, other industrialized powers and the third world nations. Alcohol fuels are the short term answer to the liquid fuel shortage because of their many end uses, broad resource base, environmental attributes, and social benefits. The time certainly has come for alcohol fuels.
- Research Organization:
- New York State Alliance to Save Energy, Inc., New York (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6806045
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-7806195-2
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Symposium on utilization of alternative fuels for transportation, Santa Clara, CA, USA, 19 Jun 1978
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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POLICY AND ECONOMY
10 SYNTHETIC FUELS
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AUTOMOTIVE FUELS
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COMMERCIALIZATION
ELECTRIC UTILITIES
ENERGY SOURCE DEVELOPMENT
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SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS
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299003* - Energy Planning & Policy- Unconventional Sources & Power Generation- Other- (-1989)
090200 - Alcohol Fuels- (-1989)