Ethanol and electricity: Fueling or fooling the future of road passenger transport?

Abstract

The vast majority of countries arguably agree that the planet is reaching a point of no return regarding global warming and climate change. Proof of that is the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement, ratified by almost every nation worldwide. However, despite signing both great commitments, the states have made too little to meet the sustainability plans. Among the targets, renewable energy sources stand out to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, but still, petrol wells continue to be drilled, and vehicle assemblers keep investing in new technologies for running their cars with fossil fuels. At the same time, government policies seem to be betting all their chips on electric engines, as if electricity were the best substitute for oil. This critical review analyses the pros and cons of such alternative fuel for road passenger transport, also taking into account another potential substitute for gasoline: bioethanol. In the following pages, we address the challenges and avenues of both alternatives and demonstrate that diversification of the global energy matrix and the biomass feedstocks should be our guiding principles.