Friday, Dec. 9, 2011
THEN
On Dec. 9, 1921, a General Motors engineer Thomas Midgeley Jr., discovers that adding lead to gasoline reduces the knocking noise in internal combustion engines. Gas fuel is too explosive for the new spark ignition systems invented 10 years earlier and so as cars heat, up they bang and clang as if parts are loose. Midgeley discovers that adding the compound tetraethyl lead makes the fuel less combustible, allowing the engine to run more smoothly. Although other compounds were found to have the same effect, the lead compound was the cheapest and could also be patented for the highest profit margin. Midgely wasn’t able to attend the first purchase of leaded gasoline from a gas station in 1923 because he was home sick with lead poisoning. Even though two of his assistants died of lead poisoning and around 40 employees at the factory making the compound suffered severe neurological disorders, it took decades for auto and oil companies to admit the lead was dangerous. Although leaded gas was phased out of use in the United States and other countries in the 1970s, leaded gasoline is still in use in some parts of Eastern Europe, South America, and in the Middle East.
NOW
In 2011, the capacity for alternative fuels like ethanol, biodiesel, and renewable diesel is at 44.6 billion gallons a year, or 4.3 percent of petroleum capacity, according to a November report by Lux Research. However, the overall growth of capacity won’t be more than 5 percent a year over the next four years because of obstacles facing the industry. The Lux report said that variations in local policy and demand among other things, will allow some nations to emerge as industry leaders in the production of alternative fuels. By 2015 ethanol capacity will grow with the greatest growth likely to come in Brazil, Australia, China, Sweden, and Thailand. Biodiesel capacity is also predicted to grow by 2015 with France, Canada, Thailand, and Germany being the countries most likely to support biofuel development. Many critics say that biofuels are not a sustainable alternative to petroleum as the expansion of biofuels threatens food security and biodiversity with mono-cropped biofuel plants using land that would otherwise produce food.
