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As A Fuel Additive, Is It More Harmful Than Helpful?: Slides Produced By: Robert Bennigsdorf
As A Fuel Additive, Is It More Harmful Than Helpful?: Slides Produced By: Robert Bennigsdorf
Visually it is:
A: As a fuel additive.
PURPOSE OF MTBE:
CO =
CO + Oxidizer CO2
Fuel used to have lead in it (thus the reason why we buy unleaded
fuel now).
The lead used to act as the oxidizing agent until the 1970s when
the adverse health effects from lead were fully realized and then
new additives had to replace it.
Simply put, the problem with MTBE is that it is way too soluble in water.
Approximately 50,000 mg per liter can be dissolved.
2. Spills
Gasoline spills from filling accidents and car accidents
3. Watercrafts
Watercraft engines routinely release some unused fuel into the oceans.
4. Vaporization
In 1997 the city of Santa Monica did reach the level of contamination
had was forced to shut down half of it water wells.
This resulted in a 75% loss of the groundwater supply for the city
and $3 million had to be spent bringing in bottled water.3
No
According to a 1998 publication from the California State Senate:
5. Jacobs pg 26.
Did these studies have any effects?
In fact, I got from the library a 195 page transcript of a hearing from July 2,
2003 from the committee on government reform of the US House of
Representatives titled: California Gasoline Markets: from MTBE to
ethanol
Side note:
My least favorite part of the transcript was when the discussion of ethanols
higher vapor pressure would cause a decrease in the volume of gasoline
actually produced versus MTBE. This would cause an increase in cost per
gallon of 3 to 6 cents per gallon just from that loss. This would equal $33 to
$66 million per month from California drivers to ethanol producers in Iowa
and Nebraska
So, it is a choice between the environment and money?
I said earlier that ethanol can be refined from corn, though I never
said how this is done. The answer, as in all things, energy.
The energy required to refine the ethanol from corn is actually greater
than the energy that the ethanol will ultimately produce when burned, and
this difference is much greater.
This doesnt really help the environment to burn fossil fuels in order to keep
the groundwater clean, or so goes the argument.
So what are we to do? Clean Air or Clean Water?
This is the ultimate question, and one that is not easily answered, the
only help that I will leave is a quote found in the front of one of the
books on MTBE: