Comparing Ethanol and Hydrogen as Alternatives to Oil

[deadhouse]

I was just wondering (with all the oil supposedly running out) how feasible is running our internal combusion engines on ethanol as apposed to say hydrogen? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Seeing as ethanol would require a massive increase in the amount of farmland for suger or corn to produce the fuel. Where as hydrogen is much much more combustible and it requires a much larger tank which takes up space and weighs more.

 

[Azael]

there seems to be some debate if its even reasonable to make ethanol out of corn. I remember reading a article stating you use more fuel to produce ethanol from corn than you get back.

Brazil is pretty succsefull though in using sugar canes to produce ethanol.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil

and this might be worth a short I guess?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulosic_ethanol

Allthought you didnt ask about it making fuel out of coal is always a (dirty)option considering the wast ammounts of coal in the world.

 

[rkkane]

brazil seem to de very well on ethanol seeing as they have no natural oil resources and are not rich enough to import a lot of it.

using coal is fine but it's not renewable like ethanol can be.

hydrogen is fairly difficult to store and accidents would be bad if it got near a naked flame as I'm sure you know what would happen in that case.