Re: Help with MS Encarta Encyclopedia - Ethanol?

[Robert Myers <rmyers@wvit.wvnet.edu>]

Greg,

For an "off-the-cuff" answer:

Ethanol is grain alcohol.  It is blended with ordinary gasoline to make a 
mixture called "gasohol".  It sez here that this mixture burns cleaner 
and reduces emissions.  I'm not so sure.  I think the jury is still out 
on that one.  One thing is for sure, it makes lots of money for Archer, 
Daniels, Midland (ADM) who produce large quantities of ethanol from grain 
for this purpose.  Ethanol is CH3-CH2-OH.  Methanol is CH3-OH and is 
commonly referred to as "wood alcohol" and is made synthetically. Gasohol 
became "popular(?)" in much of the country during the oil shortage of the 
70's.  It was more popular in corn producing states than in others as I 
recall.  :-)

The effect of added ethanol (or methanol) in gasoline is more or less the 
same effect as added methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) which is now 
required by law in certain regions during the winter months.

 On Thu, 15 Feb 1996, Greg Koehler wrote:

> This is non-quattro, but I thought someone out there might be able to 
> help me with my job.  One of my fellow editors on the encyclopedia is 
> working on automobile racing articles and is wondering what "ethanol" 
> gasoline is?  Is this just regular gasoline? Unleaded?  I've heard of 
> the word before, and methanol as well (which I believe uses methane), 
> but I've never bothered to figure out what it actually is.  If someone 
> gives me a good explanation, I can make a case to include an article on 
> Audi in the next version of the CD-ROM (fat chance).  Any help is much 
> appreciated.
> 
> Greg Koehler
> - Redmond, WA
> - '90 Model 80 Quattro
> 
> 
> 


__
  Bob
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* Robert L. Myers                  <rmyers@wvit.wvnet.edu>               *
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