Ethanol as a Fuel

Assess the potential of ethanol as an alternative fuel and evaluate the success of the current usage

The use of ethanol as a fuel in Australia is small, with only 50 million litres used of the 135 million litres output. The majority of it is produced on the East Coast and sold from around 200 independent New South Wales outlets. These outlets are supplied by the Manildra Group, which manufactures ethanol from wheat waste in Nowra, New South Wales. It has been used as a fuel since the construction of the first motor vehicle and was used extensively in north Queensland from 1929 to 1957. Fuel ethanol has been marketed in New South Wales since 1994, however, n 2002, BP began marketing 10% ethanol blend petrol in Queensland. Currently, fuel ethanol use corresponds to 0.19% of petrol and diesel use, 0.33% of petrol use and 1.5% petrol use in greater Sydney, which is the main market.

In 2002, around the time BP began marketing 10% ethanol blend petrol, fuel ethanol use began attracting significant negative comment. These comments surrounded claims of possible damage to vehicles that had not been modified to accommodate fuel blends above 10% per volume of ethanol. As a result, many motoring organisations such as the National Roads and Motorist’s Association and the Australian Automobile Association called for a 10% cap by volume on ethanol blended petrol. The negative attention has impeded the marketing of fuel ethanol, including the market-accepted 10% by volume blends. This has led to many legislations against its use. For example, South Australia does not allow the use of ethanol in petrol and in Queensland, ethanol blended fuel cannot exceed 10%. However, ethanol blends well above 10% by volume have been marketed by several independent service stations in New South Wales since 1994, which has attracted negative publicity. This has led to a hindrance in the further development of the fuel ethanol industry.

In contrast to Australia’s small use of ethanol, the United States produces a significantly larger amount. The use of ethanol fuel in the U.S. has increased dramatically from about 1.7 billion gallons in 2001 to about 13.2 billion in 2013 and it is equivalent to only 1.4% of petrol consumption by volume. Most of the gasoline sold in the U.S. contains up to 10% ethanol, however, since 2011, the EPA began allowing the use of ‘E15’ in vehicles manufactured in 2001 or later.

As supplies of non-renewable sources of fuel are slowly deteriorating governments gradually turned towards alternative renewable sources. Brazil in the 1970’s and ‘80s adopted ethanol as its major fuel in order to reduce oil imports and stimulate employment growth. They grew large amounts of sugar cane specifically for their waste to produce ethanol and approximately a third of the motor vehicles in Brazil (over four million) were able to use pure ethanol as a sole source of fuel. However, this process