Ethanol is the main alcohol fuel used to run cars, other vehicles, and machinery, instead of gasoline.
- Ethanol fuel, along with plant and animal oils, was used for lamp oil and cooking since ancient times.
- Before the American Civil War, many farmers in the USA had an alcohol still to turn crop waste into free lamp oil and stove fuel for the farmers' family use.
- In 1826, Samuel Morey uses alcohol in the first American internal combustion engine prototype.
- The Industrial Age caused farmers to move to city jobs, selling their farms and ethanol fuel stills.
- In 1859, Edwin Drake's first oil well is drilled in Pennsylvania.
- By 1860, thousands of distilleries made 90 million gallons of alcohol or more per year for lighting, cooking, and industry. In 1860, German inventor Nicholas August Otto used ethyl alcohol as a fuel in an early internal combustion engine.
- In 1862 and 1864, a $2.08 per gallon tax on alcohol was passed in the U.S. to pay for the Civil War, increasing the price of ethanol dramatically. Farmers couldn't sell it, so they used it themselves.
- In the 1890s, alcohol fueled engines were used in farm machinery, train locomotives, and cars in the U.S. and Europe, making countries more fuel independent. Ethanol was the first fuel used by American cars before gasoline.
- By 1896, horseless carriages (cars) were showing up on roads in Europe and the United States. Henry Ford's first car, the Quadracycle, ran on ethanol.
- In 1899, the German government began the office of alcohol sales. It artificially equalized the price of alchohol with the price of gasoline, through subsidies to alchohol makers and a tariff on imported oil.
- In 1902, the Paris alcohol fuel exposition exhibited alcohol powered cars, farm machinery, lamps, stoves, heaters, laundry irons, hair curlers, coffee roasters, and every conceivable household appliance and agricultural engine powered by alcohol.
- In 1906, Free Alcohol bill is passed. The USA repeals the $2.08 alcohol tax under Teddy Roosevelt, a bitter enemy of oil. At 14 cents per gallon, corn ethanol was cheaper than gasoline at 22 cents per gallon. Bills pass that exempt farm stills from government control.
- In 1907, the discovery of new oil fields in Texas causes the price of gasoline to drop to between 18 and 22 cents per gallon in the USA. At the same time, alcohol fuel prices skyrocket to around 25 to 30 cents per gallon.
- In 1908, the Ford Model T is introduced. It can run on ethanol or gasoline.
- In 1914, the Free Alcohol bill is amended again to decrease the regulatory burden and encourage alchohol fuel production in the U.S.
- 1919, Prohibition police destroyed corn-alchohol stills, which some farmers used to produce low cost ethanol fuel.
- In the 1920s and 1930s, Koolmotor, Benzalcool, Moltaco, Lattybentyl, Natelite, Alcool and Agrol are some of the alchohol-gasoline blends of fuels once found in Britain, Italy, Hungary, Sweden, South Africa, Brazil and the U.S. (respectively).
- In 1921, leaded gas is discovered, solving the problem of engine knock associated with gasoline. It was believed that world oil supplies would run out or be too rare and expensive in 25 years. Ethyl alcohol was considered to be the fuel that would eventually replace petroleum. About 100 million gallons of industrial alcohol supply is available.
- In 1923, the price of alcohol from molasses was less than 20 cents per gallon, while retail gasoline prices had reached an all-time high of 28 cents per gallon. Standard Oil experiments with a 10% alcohol, 90% gasoline blend for a few months to increase octane and stop engine knock. France subsidized alcohol fuel and required gasoline importers to buy alcohol, in amounts of at least 10% of their gasoline imports.
- By the mid-1920s, ethyl alcohol was blended with gasoline in every industrialized nation except the United States.
- In 1925, France, Germany, Brazil, and other countries have a "mandatory blending" law. This law requires gasoline retailers to blend in large volumes of alcohol with all gasoline sold.
- In the 1930s, the Dust bowl drought and Great Depression forced many more farmers to move to the cities looking for work, leaving their achohol fuel stills behind. Henry Ford, a farmer himself, supported ethanol's use over gas. Ford Motors originally built cars that could be changed slightly to run on gasoline, alcohol, or kerosene.
- In 1933, faced with the 25% unemployment of the Great Depression, the U.S. government considered tax advantages that would help ethanol production to increase employment among farmers. The "farm chemurgy" movement, supported by farmers, Republicans, and Henry Ford, searched for new products to grow on the farm (such as soybean plastic) and supported alcohol fuel.
- From 1933 to 1939, The American Petroleum Institute argued that such government help would hurt the oil industry, reduce state treasuries, and cause an unhealthy criminal 'bootlegger' atmosphere around fueling stations. They claimed alcohol fuel was in every way inferior to gasoline. The government did not pass the alcohol fuel incentives.
- Until the late 1930s, ethanol fuel was serious competive threat to gasoline in Europe.
- In 1937, Agrol, an ethanol-gasoline blend, was sold at 2,000 service stations in the U.S. Agrol plant managers complained of sabotage and bitter infighting by the oil industry, and the cheaper price of gasoline. Alcohol was 25 cents per gallon, while gasoline was 17 to 19 cents per gallon.
- In 1939, Agrol production shuts down because of a lack of a viable market.
- By 1940, the U.S. Midwestern alcohol fuel movement had disintegrated.
- In 1942, 500+ million gallons of alcohol is used for aviation fuel and synthetic "Buna-S" rubber for World War II. That year, Senate committees began investigating the oil industry, particularly their control over other industries, such as the alcohol rubber industries.
- In 1973, a worldwide energy crisis begins, causing ethanol to become cheaper than gasoline.
- By the mid-1980s, over 100 new corn alcohol production plants had been built and over a billion gallons of ethanol for fuel were sold per year.
- In the late 1980s and 1990s, new oil wells are discovered and the price of gasoline becomes much cheaper than alcohol fuel. Ethanol plants are subsidized by the U.S. government to support farmers. Gasohol is commonly available in the U.S. Midwest.
- In 1984, the number of ethanol plants peaked at 163 in the U.S., producing 595 million gallons of ethanol that year.
- In 1988, ethanol is first used as an oxygenate to lower pollution caused by burning gasoline.
- Between 1997 and 2002, three million U.S. cars and light trucks are produced which could run on E85, a blend of 85% ethanol with 15% gasoline. Almost no gas stations sell this fuel however.
- In the early 2000s, the invasion of Iraq makes Americans aware of their dependence on foreign oil. This and worry over climate change causes leading alternative energies like biofuel, solar and wind to expand 20 to 30% yearly.
- In 2003, California is the first state to start replacing the oxygenate, MTBE with ethanol. Several other states start switching soon afterward.
- In 2004, Crude oil prices rise by 80%. Gasoline prices rise 30% in the U.S. Diesel fuel rises almost 50%. These rises are caused by hurricane damage to oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, attacks on Iraqi oil pipelines, disruptions elsewhere, and rising demand for gasoline in Asia, as Asians buy more cars. Alcohol fuel prices are much closer to the price as gasloline. The ethanol industry in the USA makes 225,000 barrels per day in August, an all-time record. Some conventional oil fuel companies are investing in alcohol fuel. Oil reserves are forecast to last about 40 more years.
Present
Over the years, ethanol fuel has been about one-third more expensive than gasoline on average, and so is too expensive to compete without subsidies. One of the reasons, it is more expensive to make because more energy is put into production than gasoline. Most cars are built to run on gasoline only. It and other large oil companies contribute millions of dollars in donations to governments, while farm lobbies support ethanol. Alcohol fuel is as commonly available and not advertised as well as gasoline, especially in the U.S. Most citizens of the U.S. do not know that a car run on alcohol, despite the long history of alcohol fuel. It is rarely mentioned in schools or in the news. These factors prevent ethanol from being used widely in the U.S., the nation with the most cars on earth.
Future
In 2004, gasoline prices are on the rise. Historically, ethanol businesses always experience prosperity when oil prices rise higher. However, oil prices are highly dependent on political factors and new oil sources are likely to be found, driving down oil prices. If oil becomes rarer, it will becomes more expensive. When the oil dries up, oil companies plan to switch over to oil extracted from shale and tar. However this process is more expensive, and therefore will raise the price of gasoline. New advancements in distillation may lower the cost of making ethanol. If laws that require denaturing are repealed, ethanol production will become a little cheaper.