Ethanol is more polluting than regular gasoline. This is what Mark Jacobson, a specialist in atmospheric chemistry at Stanford University, after a study comparing the long-term emissions virtual two fleets: one travelling at ethanol, the other with petrol. He said that while the use of ethanol would increase by 4% in mortality due to air pollution by 2020.



This recent study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology is a blow for biofuels often presented as the ultimate solution to combat global warming, while the commercialization of E 85, or "superéthanol" biofuel comprising 85% of ethanol and 15% gasoline, poussivement starts in France.

It is by observing the deterioration of air quality in Brazil in the 70's with the wide availability of ethanol, Mark Jacobson focused on the consequences of this fuel.

"A mixture of gasoline with a high concentration of ethanol presents a risk equal to or even greater, for public health than gasoline alone," says Mr. Jacobson, who adds: "In some parts of the country, the mixture" E85 "has led to a sharp increase in ozone, a main component of smog (a mixture of fog and smoke that forms over the major cities of due to air pollution). "

What reinforce the camp of skeptics on the virtues of fuels of plant origin. Recently, two NGOs remembered in Madrid, at a conference on biofuels, they "pose threats to the conservation of tropical forests, on the climate and food security" because of the increasing " monocultures intensive in the areas most vulnerable and ecologically fragile on the planet. "

The price to pay to slow global warming?

Olivier