ORNL researchers are investigating ways to reduce the costs of producing ethanol to make the automotive fuel more competitive with gasoline. It's easy to get carried away with the advantages of ethanol as a transportation fuel. It is a clean-burning, renewable, domestically produced product made from fermented agricultural products, such as corn. The use of ethanol does not contribute the amount of noxious fumes and volatile organic compounds that standard gasoline spews into the air.
Ethanol contains oxygen, which provides a cleaner and more efficient burn of the fuel.
Although ethanol emits carbon dioxide when burned, much of this greenhouse gas is absorbed, or recycled, by the types of crops from which the ethanol was made. As a result, burning ethanol contributes very little net carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. This bus in Peoria, Illinois runs on fuel made mostly of ethanol produced from corn. In terms of cost, however, E-85 doesn't compete with gasoline yet. A 50 cent per gallon tax credit would be required to make ethanol cost the same as the wholesale price of gasoline.