ing vegetable can be used, for instance, sorghum, sugar beets, cassava, corn, eucalyptus, and potatoes, (Grammer, 10). In Brazil, "one ton of sugar cane not only produces 18.5 gallons of alcohol, but also 240.5 gallons of vinasse and 594 lb of bagasse." If these byproducts are discharged into the rivers of Brazil, in less than four years, "one quarter of the world's freshwater system could be killed," (Mazzone, 60) These byproducts need not and are not discharged to water though. Vinasse is concentrated and used as animal feed and as a fertilizer. Bagasse is piped right back into boilers to fuel the ethanol distilleries; thus one byproduct is used as food and the other as fuel, leaving no byproducts, (Mazzone, 60). A Brazilian land owner with more than 60 acres can produce enough cane to produce electric for his house and fuel one vehicle, (Grammer, 12). All byproducts can be used to fertilize crops and power the home plant. Ethanol is certainly a viable and feasible alternative fuel in Brazil, but is it in the U.S.? Not as much so as methanol. The U.S. is incapable of producing crops to the needed extent to fuel all of its vehicles on ethanol alone as in Brazil. Blended fuels are a possibility, and already the fuel we buy contains 10% or less ethanol. Gasohol, as it is called, already allows the U.S. to save two gallons of petroleum for every gallon of ethanol used, due to the 100% octane rating and high efficiency, as much as 40% to even 50% compared to today's 10 to 30% efficient gasoline fueled vehicles. Ethanol and methanol can also be combined as well as derived from biomass and natural gas sources. Ethanol is therefore a feasible alternative fuel in the U.S..Hydrogen is the last alternative fuel warranting significant attention and it will quite possibly be the fuel of the future one century from now if no new methods of propulsion and or power are discovered in the next century. Hydrogen has many advantages and disadvantages mos...
