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[abdooooo!!!]

i can't believe that i woke up at 6am to write this, me crazy... sleepy

anyway, is this answer good? can you help me improve this answer?

the dot point is: process information from secondary sources to summarise the use of ethanol as an alternative car fuel, evaluating the success of current usage (the answer is for the evaluation)

The success of current usage of ethanol will be judged based on the criteria: economic cost, environmental impact, performance impact, and government backing
Evaluation,

Ethanol is used as fuel in many countries. It is particularly popular in Brazil, where 4 million vehicles are powered by pure ethanol derived from sugar cane. Because Brazil has very high pollution level and very few oil reserves, ethanol helps to lower emission of harmful pollutants and decrease their dependency on the limited fossil feul. Brazil and some US states mandate ethanol content in petrol.

Small amounts of ethanol have been added to Australian petrol for around 20 years. At present, ethanol production levels are low, with only 60 million litres produced for fuel each year. Of these 60 million litres of ethanol, 90% is sold to NSW, and most of this ends up in Sydney.

A survey released by Caltex in October 2002 showed most of the petrol sold contain more than 10% ethanol. This pressured the Howard government to cap ethanol to a maximum of 10%, because there were uncertainties over the benefit/dangers of high ethanol content, and the impact on a normal car engines performance.

Using ethanol as a petrol supplement has implications for consumers, and also for the environment and economy, due to the problems of storing and supplying fuel containing ethanol. Storage tanks and fittings at service stations have not been designed for fuels containing large amounts of ethanol, and would need costly upgrades in order to safely and effectively house such fuels.

Ethanol has a lower energy content than petrol, therefore the higher the ethanol content, the higher the rate of fuel consumption. Ethanol is currently more expensive to produce than petrol; hence the government have to fund the extra cost, this incurs an economic cost.

The current usage of ethanol hasnt been all that successful in Australia based on these criteria. At the moment, in most of the countries in the world, the downside in using ethanol far outweighs the benefits. However, countries like Brazil have shown that ethanol as a stand alone fuel can work one day in Australia, and the rest of the world.


and can someone tell me what the first part of the dot point mean? when it says "alternative car fuel", it means 100% ethanol right? do i just talk about what brazil is doing or maybe different car designs?

thanks

 

[PoLaRbEaR]

Ethanol is used as fuel in many countries. It is particularly popular in Brazil, where 4 million vehicles are powered by pure ethanol derived from sugar cane.

Cars can't run purely on ethanol alone or else it'll kill the engine.
Also it'll be too hard to produce so much ethanol because of all the land and wastes from the production of ethanol from sugar canes.

When it says 'alternative car fuel' I think it means fuel than can be used rather than the main ones used today. I think you could talk about gasohol (10% ethanol, 90% gasoline) over the use of just petrol.

 

[kini mini]

Originally posted by abdooooo!!!
i can't believe that i woke up at 6am to write this, me crazy... sleepy

I can't believe I'm answering this at 10.45pm . I'm still hyped up from fencing.

Ethanol is used as fuel in many countries. It is particularly popular in Brazil, where 4 million vehicles are powered by pure ethanol derived from sugar cane. Because Brazil has very high pollution level and very few oil reserves, ethanol helps to lower emission of harmful pollutants and decrease their dependency on the limited fossil feul.

This is good. Make sure you note that ethanol production from bagasse in Brazil is only energy efficient because Brazil has a huge sugar cane industry anyway - it is not energy efficient to grow and harvest sugar cane just for ethanol production. I'll look for the notes I was given on this topic if you like . You might also want to say that how ethanol helps to reduce pollution, teachers are anal about explicit statements such as "it burns cleanly".

A survey released by Caltex in October 2002 showed most of the petrol sold contain more than 10% ethanol. This pressured the Howard government to cap ethanol to a maximum of 10%, because there were uncertainties over the benefit/dangers of high ethanol content, and the impact on a normal car engines performance.

I would go further than this, and say that car manufacturers said that using petrol with more than 10% ethanol would void warranties because they believed that engine damamge would result. Not much uncertainty there for consumers!

Ethanol has a lower energy content than petrol, therefore the higher the ethanol content, the higher the rate of fuel consumption. Ethanol is currently more expensive to produce than petrol; hence the government have to fund the extra cost, this incurs an economic cost.

There are complications with incomplete combustion of petrl, but that's right. It seems that ethanol will always require more energy to produce than petrol, from crops at least.

However, countries like Brazil have shown that ethanol as a stand alone fuel can work one day in Australia, and the rest of the world.

Brazilian cars have engines that are built for use with ethanol. There would be a substantial one-off financial and environmental cost in changing over. As I said before, ethanol is viable in Brazil only because of the existing sugar industry. From the material I was given, I'm not optimistic about ethanol use at all.

hen it says "alternative car fuel", it means 100% ethanol right? do i just talk about what brazil is doing or maybe different car designs?

Talk about blends as well - that is the most practical scenario . Touch on different car designs, with regard to engines, but there's not that much to say about them.

thanks [/B][/QUOTE]

 

[abdooooo!!!]

thanks kini mini

and for the conclusion, would it be ok if i just add: "it can work one day when fossil fuel becomes to expensive to use as a fuel." because i want to finish it off on a positive note.

 

[kini mini]

Originally posted by abdooooo!!!
thanks kini mini

and for the conclusion, would it be ok if i just add: "it can work one day when fossil fuel becomes to expensive to use as a fuel." because i want to finish it off on a positive note.

You're welcome . I understand that it would be nice to finish on a positive note, but I think that you can't go much further than a carefully qualified statement such as "The use of ethanol as a partial or complete substitute for conventional petrochemicals can be viable if its environmental and monetary costs are below those of fossil fuels as in the case of Brazil. It is possible that this will become possible with the development of more energy efficient cultivation and processing methods for the biomatter feedstock".

It's just occurred to me that HSC "science" prepares you very well for commerce/law - cost-benefit analysis, very careful wording, it's got the lot .

 

[abdooooo!!!]

Originally posted by kini mini
"The use of ethanol as a partial or complete substitute for conventional petrochemicals can be viable if its environmental and monetary costs are below those of fossil fuels as in the case of Brazil. It is possible that this will become possible with the development of more energy efficient cultivation and processing methods for the biomatter feedstock".

hehehe... thats what i was trying to say, i guess i just don't have the mad english skill that you have. that is one fully and clearly expressed answer, leaving nothing implied.