The students in grade 12 of the German Economic High School in Wolgast have started a new project, where they broach the issue of alternative energy in their geography lessons. We tasked ourselves with categories like solar-, windenergy, hybrid cars or electric cars. How can we help our environment to protect it from the climate change? We asked ourselves how the future of our world can address the challenge of controlling atmospheric emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases, that causes for instance gasoline?
One topic was ethanol fuel as a gasoline alternative, which is a sustainable resource. Actually ethanol is a liquid alcohol that consists carbon, hydrogen and oxygen and can be produced from any biological feedstock, for instance corn, barley, sugar cane, cereal grain or wheat, and cellulose materials such as agricultural and wood wastes. Basically it is intended to provide a more environmentally and economically friendly alternative to fossil fuels such as diesel and gasoline. The ethanol production started in Brazil, where it is widely used in cars as a fuel. Now in these times ethanol is a common alternative renewable fuel in North America, India, China, Europe, which have started to extend their production as well. After researches we found out that there are many controversial debates surrounding the environmental friendliness of ethanol, and the production. There a many advantages connected with ethanol fuel, for example it can be combined with gasoline at different percentages, or can be used in its pure form as E100. An other good point is that proponents argue that ethanol is a solution of not depending on oil imported from other countries, and that we can be independent of the oil crisis. But still ethanol isn't a future hold, many problems are discovered with the increased supply and use of ethanol. The deforestation of the rainforest in Brazil; the increased poverty problems because of recently high prices for basic groceries or the wastefulness of water are some of the issues which make difficulties. These facts support the argumentation of many opponents that ethanol isn't more economically friendly compared to fossil fuels. Ultimately, the competition between fuels in the marketplace and government policies will determine the role of ethanol and will decide if ethanol could be really an answer for alternative energy.
written by Ina Diedrich and Jennifer Kuttner
