John Maguire

Advisor:  Brad Baldwin

SLU Festival of Science 2001 Poster Presentation

Alternative Fuels: Ushering in an Age of Improvement Without Losing Balance

The point of the project is to show the environmental and economic advantages to the use of alternatives fuels; specifically ethanol and methanol, also pellet fuels and wood.

Environmentally showing exactly how alternative fuels burn cleaner and reduce ground pollution. Specifically methanol and ethanol; both burn cleaner due to the relatively low amount of hydrocarbons and present little if any threat to ground water contamination alone because unlike gasoline both need not be oxidized with MTBE ( methyl tert butyl ether) which is a highly soluble oxidizing agent that is added to gasoline to make it burn cleaner which subsequently leaks into ground water via cracked tanks. These examples are in contrast to the fossils fuels in widespread use today, which do both harm to the atmosphere and ground water. Economically I will show how alternative fuels will help to lower the cost of energy because of the lack of tariffs and domestic abundance. The United States spends millions on tariffs and import fees each year to the Oil Producing Countries when in reality we have all the means to produce methanol and ethanol right under our noses. Biomass (any product of a tree or plant) can be produce ethanol and methanol by decomposing and fermenting biomass, refuse can also produce these as well. Wood and pellet fuels are also alternative energy sources; wood is the most readily available and pellet fuels are made primarily from sawdust and other biomass materials.