----in respect to the question “Could E85 alternate the conventional fuels according to its obvious benefits on environmental issues”In a narrow sense, E85 refers to a petrol blend of 85% ethanol and 15% conventional petroleum. In broad terms, itincludes high-level ethanol-gasoline blends containing 51％－83% ethanol, according to the definition of the U.S.Department of Energy (AFDC, 2014).
(Is the article written in a way to influence your opinion on the possibility of E85 as a alternative fuel in the future,explain with reference to the article. )The article is written in a neutral way with the focus on vehicle emissions. The theme is revealed in the introduction partwith the sentence “Today's emissions standards require ethanol/gasoline-capable flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) to meetthe same emissions standards as conventional vehicles, regardless of the fuel used”.The analysis in the body part does show the advantages of ethanol fuels, such as E85, comparing to the conventionalpetroleum fuels, according to the performance comparisons in the aspects of “Life Cycle Emissions” and “Evaporativeand Tailpipe Emissions”. However, the statement keeps scientific and neutral with broad data research and descriptionsof both pros and cons for the ethanol fuels. For example, “Numerous studies have compared the emissions of E85 andgasoline. E85 decreases the emissions of CO2, as well as the emissions of many harmful toxics, such as benzene.However, it increases acetaldehyde emissions.”
2. Credibility
(Is the publisher a trust worthy source of information on the related issues, explain?)The article is published on the website of the U.S. Department of Energy, to be specific, the Alternative Fuels DataCenter (AFDC) of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Office. The AFDC is a resource of the U. S.Department of Energy’s Clean Cities program. The information resource is reliable for its public welfare nature withoutmotivation for biased commercial advertisement.In addition, all the figures and data employed in the article are quoted from reliable scientific works based on broadresearch. For example, the graph is derived from the study of Argonne National Laboratory with trackable links.
3. Accuracy
(Explain what you would need to do to check if the information in the article is accurate.)All the “facts” beyond common sense level are illustrated with supporting information in the article.In the “Life Cycle Emissions” part, the comparison is shown clearly with the figure. To know more about the calculationand investigation details we can refer to the paper (Wang, Wu & Huo, 2007).In the “Evaporative and Tailpipe Emissions” part, there is also a scientific report to support the opinion (CoordinatingResearch Council, 2006). For the fact mentioned above, “low levels of ethanol can cause gasoline to evaporate moreeasily, low-level ethanol blends can increase evaporative emissions in vehicles”, no explanations are given, but theconclusion is reasonable with the consideration of the physical chemistry property of ethanol, where the blending systemmay have the lowest constant boiling point or a boiling point between the two pure solvents.
4. Suitability
(Does this article explain whether E85 is possible to alternate the conventional fuels in the future according to its obviousbenefits on environmental issues?Is there any other information should be taken into consideration beyond what has been mentioned in the article? )The article exhibits ethanol fuels, including E85, as a promising alternative fuel according to its obvious benefits onenvironmental issues. It is advantageous over the conventional fuels in terms of both life cycle emissions and evaporativeand tailpipe emissions.However, there are more factors should be considered for feasibility. First of all, with lower energy content, E85 maycause the driver more troubles for refueling (Royal Automobile Association of South Australia, 2015), which makes itinconvenient to apply. Secondly, with the consideration of larger unit consumption of fuels, the price of E85 should below enough to appeal more consumers, which limits its promotion. Last but not the least, the production of ethanol fuelsmay cause some side effects. As a leader in the frontier of biofuel exploration, the United States has been called on tosuspend its production of biofuel ethanol by the United Nations Food agency for several side effects it brought (North,2012), which should be an example to be learnt from more seriously.
Reference
AFDC. (2014) “E85: An Alternative Fuel”, [Online] Available
Coordinating Research Council. (2006) “Fuel Permeation from Automotive Systems: E0, E6, E10, E20 and E85”, 3650
Mansell Road · Suite 140·Alpharetta, GA 30022
North, M. M. (2012) “US biofuel production should be suspended, UN says”
Royal Automobile Association of South Australia. (2015) “E85 Fuel”
Wang, M. , Wu, M. & Huo, H. (2007) “Life-cycle energy and greenhouse gas emission impacts of different corn ethanol plant types”, Environmental Research Letters 2 (2007) 024001 (13pp)
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