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Bioalcohol - Definition and Overview |
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- This article is about bioalcohol in general. Further details about its use as a fuel are available at alcohol fuel.
Bioalcohol is alcohol obtained from biological sources, not from petroleum. Examples include methanol and ethanol. It is used most often as a blend of biofuel with petroleum although some new cars are able to use BA100 (Bioalcohol 100%). On the other hand, one can use BD100 (Biodiesel 100%, also called B100) in modern petroleum diesel cars.
Ethanol is commonly produced from corn in U.S. Midwest and BA10 is commonly available and in some places mandated (though the prefix E is commonly used in the U.S. instead of BA, as in E85 fuel). It is used to lower emissions by raising the amount of available oxygen and is used as a replacement for MTBE, a chemical oxygenate.
Bioalcohol is not used in most industrial processes, which use alcohol derived from fossil fuels as this produces alcohol that is cheaper than bioalcohol. Many economists argue that this fact illustrates the economic infeasibility of using bioalcohol as a petroleum substitute and argue that government programs that mandate the use of bioalcohol are simply agricultural subsidies.
See also
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