Why is ethanol gasoline, which has been suffering for 16 years, not popular?

Just after finishing the hot spot of "banned fuel vehicles", "ethanol gasoline" has been ushered in. Gasoline has been a little busy recently.

This week, 15 ministries and commissions including the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Energy Administration and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the Implementation Plan on Expanding the Production of Biofuel Ethanol and Promoting the Use of Ethanol Gasoline for Vehicles. The plan requires that the use of ethanol gasoline will be promoted nationwide by 2020.

This is not a new technology. It has been promoted since 2001, but it has been controversial.

Why should we promote ethanol gasoline?

Ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Ethanol gasoline is to mix a certain proportion of ethanol with gasoline and use it as vehicle fuel.

According to China's national standards, ethanol-gasoline is a new type of alternative energy that is mixed with 10% fuel ethanol and 90% ordinary gasoline. The fuel ethanol is mainly processed from grain and various plant fibers.

Why should we promote ethanol gasoline?

According to the Energy Administration, biofuel ethanol is a renewable liquid fuel. Ethanol gasoline for vehicles can replace some oil, increase the proportion of non-fossil energy, improve the energy structure, reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and tail gas particulates, and improve the environment. In addition, the use of straw, the raw material for fuel ethanol, can solve the burning problem of agricultural and forestry wastes such as straw, improve the air quality, and is also an effective way to dispose of overdue and excessive grain.

Affected by the "oil crisis" in the mid-1970s and other factors, the fuel ethanol industry has been vigorously developed in many countries. At present, there are dozens of countries in the world that have implemented fuel ethanol, with the United States, Brazil and China ranking the top three.

According to media reports, more than 40 countries and regions have promoted biofuel ethanol and ethanol gasoline for vehicles. The annual consumption of ethanol gasoline is about 600 million tons, accounting for about 60% of the world's total gasoline consumption. The United States, Brazil and other countries have achieved full coverage through legislation.

According to the Xinhua News Agency, China's fuel ethanol output was 2.3 million tons in 2016, and the consumption of ethanol gasoline accounted for 20% of the total national gasoline consumption of 120 million tons in the same period.

The 13th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Biomass Energy released at the end of 2016 plans to produce 4 million tons of fuel ethanol by 2020. In addition, with the introduction of this plan, the goal is to basically achieve nationwide coverage of ethanol gasoline for vehicles by 2020. Kid Doujun calculated that the output of 4 million tons of fuel ethanol is 40 million tons of ethanol gasoline according to the 10% addition ratio.

It is not easy to cover the whole country in 2020.

In fact, China has launched a pilot project of biofuel ethanol since 2001.

After 16 years of development, under the pilot development of the country, only 11 provinces (including Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Henan, Anhui, Guangxi and 31 prefectures in Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Inner Mongolia and Hubei) have used ethanol gasoline so far.

Why has ethanol gasoline not been popularized in 16 years?

In addition to easing the dependence on oil, the promotion of ethanol gasoline for vehicles in China is more about digesting the surplus grain and converting it into energy.

There are two kinds of fuel ethanol production: bio-fermentation to ethanol and coal to ethanol. At present, China is relatively mature in the development of bio-fermentation method, also known as grain to ethanol method, which mainly uses corn, wheat, potato and other raw materials. Therefore, in some areas with serious food surplus, theoretically, this method of producing ethanol fuel not only solves the serious problem of old grain, but also can develop clean new energy.

It can be seen from the above figure that most of the regions developing biofuel ethanol are in the major grain provinces in the northeast and central China.

But fuel ethanol has been controversial from the beginning.

1. Ethanol gasoline itself is controversial

On the Internet, you can see the voices against ethanol gasoline everywhere. Many people think that the disadvantages of ethanol gasoline are greater than the advantages:

According to the voice on the internet, the questions about ethanol gasoline can be summed up as follows: high fuel consumption, low power (the car is not powerful), no advantage in price, and difficult to store

"The calorific value of ethanol is only 60% of that of gasoline. The energy density is low, it is not burn resistant, and the fuel consumption is high. The intuitive feeling is that if you step on the accelerator, the car will not be strong."

"Ethanol gasoline is a difficult fuel to store. After leaving the sealed storage environment of the gas station, its shelf life is only about one month."

"The reason why ethanol gasoline is criticized is that it is said to be extremely corrosive and will cause irreversible damage to the engine and various components after a long time."

For some of the above shortcomings, kidney beans have found some "explanations".

→ In terms of fuel consumption, the fuel consumption of ethanol gasoline and ordinary gasoline is equivalent in theory.

First of all, compared with ordinary gasoline, the theoretical calorific value of ethanol gasoline is about 3.8% lower. This is the truth.

According to Zhang Yongguang, a professor-level senior engineer of the Chinese Academy of Petroleum Sciences, ethanol gasoline is 10% fuel ethanol, and ethanol with high oxygen content can promote the combustion of gasoline, increasing the heat by 1% - 2%. In addition, the octane number of ethanol gasoline is more than ten octane units higher than that of ordinary gasoline, which also makes up for the loss of about 1% - 2% of fuel consumption (the higher the octane number, the better the anti-knock performance, and the stronger the anti-knock ability of the engine). So it seems that the fuel consumption of ethanol gasoline is equivalent to that of ordinary gasoline.

→ In terms of power, there is basically no difference between ethanol gasoline and ordinary gasoline in terms of vehicle power

According to media reports, the refining process expert of Luoyang Branch of China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation has made an experiment on this subject during his tenure. He made a comparative experiment between No. 93 motor ethanol gasoline and No. 93 ordinary gasoline. The test result at that time was that the performance of No. 93 motor ethanol gasoline and No. 93 ordinary gasoline were basically the same in terms of power, torque and fuel consumption, while the advantages in terms of pollutant emissions were obvious.

Source: Luoyang Evening News

→ Corrosive, demonized ethanol gasoline

There are only three components of ethanol: H, C, O, so ethanol itself is not corrosive. The main reason is that ethanol combustion will produce a small amount of acetic acid, which will corrode some non-ferrous metals (such as copper, silver, zinc, etc.). At present, the main parts of automobiles sold on the market in China no longer use corrosive metal materials. So corrosivity is out of the question.

→ In terms of price, further reduction should be achieved

The low price is an important reason why ethanol gasoline is not popular. Due to the low level of technology in the early stage of development, China has adopted financial subsidies, tax incentives and other policy support for the grain-to-fuel ethanol industry, which has achieved the same price of ethanol gasoline and traditional gasoline in the pilot area. However, the same price is not enough to attract people to use ethanol gasoline. In order to make ethanol gasoline for vehicles at the same price as traditional gasoline, the price must be further reduced.

Ethanol gasoline has some disadvantages: for example, the storage technology is high, the cold start performance is poor, and it will be more difficult to start when the weather is cold. If there is water in the fuel tank, ethanol will be separated from gasoline, which may cause the car to stall.

But these shortcomings are also the problems that it needs to break through in the next period of time.

2. Ethanol gasoline is considered as "competing for food with others"

People are worried that ethanol, mainly made from corn, will endanger China's food security.

This is because in some places, ethanol gasoline not only uses old grain, but new grain. For example, in the third year of the promotion of ethanol gasoline in 2004, such problems were encountered. A report in 2004 showed that from November 2004 to July 2005, an enterprise in Heilongjiang used 500000 tons of new grain for ethanol fuel, and only began to use old grain in late June this year. This report caused people's concern about "the impact of the promotion of ethanol gasoline on food security".

In fact, as soon as the news of the nationwide promotion of the use of ethanol gasoline appeared in 2020, the corn market "rose". On September 14, the opening price of corn and corn starch in Dalian was high.