ABSTRACT
While U.S. interest in fuel ethanol has grown since the oil crises of the 1970s, its use in gasoline blends accounted for only about 5 per cent of total fuel use in motor vehicles in 2007 (RFA 2008; EIA 2007). Although ethanol (i.e. ethyl alcohol) has the advantage of being derived from domestic resources, its use for fuel has often been criticized as technically, economically and environmentally undesirable (e.g. Pimental and Patzek 2005). Even so, interest in alternative transportation fuels is growing for several reasons: oil supply insecurity, price increases and its impending peak, and the imperative to lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuel use in order to help stave off adverse global climatic change (Farrell et al. 2006).
