ETHANOL FUMES
It has been quite a while since we have seen any news coverage concerning the possible use of ethanol as one means of solving our fuel shortage and associated high costs problems. There was time when it was made to way out. Were we mis-lead or were we oversold?
Ethanol is still being made. In fact, the manufacturing of ethanol, in its many forms, show a steady increase. The era still numerous ways to spell the term but the major “spell checkers” services seem to have agreed on ethanol and excluded the dozen or so other ways of translating plentiful green plants into gasoline to move our cars along rather than costly barrels of crude.
Just and a few weeks ago a tanker flying the Singapore, sank about fifty miles off Chincoteague, Virginia. It was carrying a load of 3.5 million gallon of industrial ethanol from Linden, New Jersey to Houston, Texas One might assume that mean the product was moving from a Garden State point where it had been manufactured to a place in The Lone Starr state where it would be put to industrial use. Crude petroleum would be moving exactly the opposite direction.. The 570 foot long craft suffered an explosion which has, as yet, not been explained. The tanker took on water fast and did a dramatic photo-genie demise in which the bow was under water and the stern rearing high into the air as it continued to burn.
The U .S. Coast Guard Group on the Eastern Shore of Virginia got the “May Day” call promptly . The foreign accent voice sounded urgent and fearfully used the term which chills any fuel tanker sailor or rescue worker:”We are on fire!” The Coast Guard had a C -130 and several Jayhawk helicopters and on one HH-65 Dolphin helicopter with extra burn victim medical gear. The 85 foot Coast Guard Albacore cutter was diverted from the mouth of the Delaware River and sent on the way to the emergency scene.
A mere three and half million gallons of ethanol doesn't sound like a tremendous amount, does it? But it does indicate that commercial tankers are transporting such stocks on regular schedules. In general, we find little in the media to let us be aware of it being used, but it is , obviously, being produced and applied to our industrial needs.
One hears rumors that Ethanol is widely used in many of our gasoline formulations:”to keep octane rating high.” If it is a common practice the media needs to inform motorists and to clarify the use of ethanol as an additive.
One would think, as our gasoline problems continue to worsen, that we would be examining ethanol with special care. It seems to be a potential substitute which could be put to far more than at the present time. If the scientist community agrees that Ethanol is harmful to automotive engines – as some still insist it can be – then the media might do well to participate in seeing that it is banned.
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One thing is sure. We can't have it both ways!
A.L.M. August 31, 2004 [c529wds]
