IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v9y2005i6p535-555.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ethanol in gasoline: environmental impacts and sustainability review article

Author

Listed:
  • Niven, Robert K.

Abstract

This study concerns the use of ethanol as a gasoline (petrol) additive, at levels around 10% by volume ('E10') as well as an 85% blend ('E85'). By detailed reviews of the peer-reviewed and technical literature, five environmental aspects of ethanol enrichment are examined: (1) its purported reduction in air pollutant emissions; (2) its potential impact on subsurface soils and groundwater; (3) its purported reduction in greenhouse gas emissions; (4) the energy efficiency of ethanol; and (5) the overall sustainability of ethanol production. The study indicates that E10 is of debatable air pollution merit (and may in fact increase the production of photochemical smog); offers little advantage in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency or environmental sustainability; and will significantly increase both the risk and severity of soil and groundwater contamination. In contrast, E85 offers significant greenhouse gas benefits, however it will produce significant air pollution impacts, involves substantial risks to biodiversity, and its groundwater contamination impacts and overall sustainability are largely unknown.

Suggested Citation

  • Niven, Robert K., 2005. "Ethanol in gasoline: environmental impacts and sustainability review article," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 9(6), pages 535-555, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:9:y:2005:i:6:p:535-555
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364-0321(04)00078-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Goldemberg, Jose & Coelho, Suani Teixeira & Lucon, Oswaldo, 2004. "How adequate policies can push renewables," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1141-1146, June.
    2. Moreira, Jose R. & Goldemberg, Jose, 1999. "The alcohol program," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 229-245, April.
    3. Pamela R. D. Williams & Colleen A. Cushing & Patrick J. Sheehan, 2003. "Data Available for Evaluating the Risks and Benefits of MTBE and Ethanol as Alternative Fuel Oxygenates," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(5), pages 1085-1115, October.
    4. Thomas, Valerie & Kwong, Andrew, 2001. "Ethanol as a lead replacement: phasing out leaded gasoline in Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(13), pages 1133-1143, November.
    5. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    6. Rask, Kevin N., 1998. "Clean air and renewable fuels: the market for fuel ethanol in the US from 1984 to 1993," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 325-345, June.
    7. Shapouri, Hosein & Duffield, James A. & Wang, Michael Q., 2002. "The Energy Balance of Corn Ethanol: An Update," Agricultural Economic Reports 34075, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Burnes, Ellen & Wichelns, Dennis & Hagen, John W., 2005. "Economic and policy implications of public support for ethanol production in California's San Joaquin Valley," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1155-1167, June.
    2. Alonso-Pippo, Walfrido & Luengo, Carlos A. & Koehlinger, John & Garzone, Pietro & Cornacchia, Giacinto, 2008. "Sugarcane energy use: The Cuban case," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 2163-2181, June.
    3. Tan, Kok Tat & Lee, Keat Teong & Mohamed, Abdul Rahman, 2008. "Role of energy policy in renewable energy accomplishment: The case of second-generation bioethanol," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 3360-3365, September.
    4. Islas, Jorge & Manzini, Fabio & Masera, Omar, 2007. "A prospective study of bioenergy use in Mexico," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 2306-2320.
    5. Awad, Omar I. & Mamat, R. & Ibrahim, Thamir K. & Hammid, Ali Thaeer & Yusri, I.M. & Hamidi, Mohd Adnin & Humada, Ali M. & Yusop, A.F., 2018. "Overview of the oxygenated fuels in spark ignition engine: Environmental and performance," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 394-408.
    6. Bastin, Cristina & Szklo, Alexandre & Rosa, Luiz Pinguelli, 2010. "Diffusion of new automotive technologies for improving energy efficiency in Brazil's light vehicle fleet," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 3586-3597, July.
    7. Awad, Omar I. & Mamat, R. & Ali, Obed M. & Sidik, N.A.C. & Yusaf, T. & Kadirgama, K. & Kettner, Maurice, 2018. "Alcohol and ether as alternative fuels in spark ignition engine: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 2586-2605.
    8. Monteiro de Carvalho, Carolina & Silveira, Semida & Rovere, Emilio Lèbre La & Iwama, Allan Yu, 2015. "Deforested and degraded land available for the expansion of palm oil for biodiesel in the state of Pará in the Brazilian Amazon," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 867-876.
    9. Šantek, Božidar & Gwehenberger, Gernot & Šantek, Mirela Ivančić & Narodoslawsky, Michael & Horvat, Predrag, 2010. "Evaluation of energy demand and the sustainability of different bioethanol production processes from sugar beet," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 54(11), pages 872-877.
    10. Mechthild Donner & Anne Verniquet & Jan Broeze & Katrin Kayser & Hugo de Vries, 2021. "Critical success and risk factors for circular business models valorising agricultural waste and by-products," Post-Print hal-03004851, HAL.
    11. Cornelis Leeuwen & Jos Frijns & Annemarie Wezel & Frans Ven, 2012. "City Blueprints: 24 Indicators to Assess the Sustainability of the Urban Water Cycle," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 26(8), pages 2177-2197, June.
    12. CHEN, Helen S.Y., 2020. "Designing Sustainable Humanitarian Supply Chains," OSF Preprints m82ar, Center for Open Science.
    13. Amigun, Bamikole & Gorgens, Johann & Knoetze, Hansie, 2010. "Biomethanol production from gasification of non-woody plant in South Africa: Optimum scale and economic performance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 312-322, January.
    14. Jim Butcher, 2006. "The United Nations International Year of Ecotourism: a critical analysis of development implications," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 6(2), pages 146-156, April.
    15. Denise Ravet, 2011. "Lean production: the link between supply chain and sustainable development in an international environment," Post-Print hal-00691666, HAL.
    16. Mara Del Baldo, 2012. "Corporate social responsibility and corporate governance in Italian SMEs: the experience of some “spirited businesses”," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 16(1), pages 1-36, February.
    17. Megan Devonald & Nicola Jones & Sally Youssef, 2022. "‘We Have No Hope for Anything’: Exploring Interconnected Economic, Social and Environmental Risks to Adolescents in Lebanon," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-17, February.
    18. Rigby, Dan & Woodhouse, Phil & Young, Trevor & Burton, Michael, 2001. "Constructing a farm level indicator of sustainable agricultural practice," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 463-478, December.
    19. Michael Howes & Liana Wortley & Ruth Potts & Aysin Dedekorkut-Howes & Silvia Serrao-Neumann & Julie Davidson & Timothy Smith & Patrick Nunn, 2017. "Environmental Sustainability: A Case of Policy Implementation Failure?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-17, January.
    20. Shiferaw, Bekele & Holden, Stein, 1999. "Soil Erosion and Smallholders' Conservation Decisions in the Highlands of Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 739-752, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:9:y:2005:i:6:p:535-555. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.