Ethanol in Motor Gasoline

Transportation fuels derived by blending of biomass derived ethanol and gasoline offer immediate potential to significantly supplement petroleum derived fuels. Ethanol can supplement the supply of gasoline produced from foreign crude oil. Oil imports currently provide the raw material for production of half of the liquid fuels consumed in the U.S., and represent a cash outflow of almost $9 million per hour. Events in recent years have dramatically illustrated the substantial economic cost, supply vulnerability, and resulting economic instability resulting from the high degree of dependency on imported oil. Biomass derived ethanol offers an immediate method of reducing oil imports since it is one of a very limited number of alternative fuels that is likely to be available in significant quantity before 1985. Alcohols fuels have been under detailed study in the United States, Brazil, West Germany and other countries. In the United States, evaluation of the use of ethanol