[OKC] Slate's Green Lantern

[Miles, Karen]

Ethanol, Nitrogen, MTBE, Lead


Are gasoline additives getting any better for the environment?

By Brian Palmer
Posted Tuesday, March 8, 2011, at 6:59 AM ET 
________________________________

Gasoline companies have been pushing engine-cleaning formulations
lately. Setting aside the benefits for my car, are these additives good
for the environment?
Gasoline is a complex mixture of, well ... stuff. The thick crude oil
that comes out of the earth bears little resemblance to the gasoline
powering your Porsche. In order to make crude safe and useful for cars,
refiners must add, alter, and remove hundreds of chemicals. These exotic
molecules include long chains of carbons, detergents, and chemical
enhancers that supposedly make gasoline cheaper, greener, and more
efficient-values that are often at odds with each other.
To appreciate the role these additives play, however, we need a basic
understanding of hydrocarbons, the main ingredient of both crude oil and
gasoline. Hydrocarbons consist of hydrogen and carbon atoms only, but in
a dizzying variety of permutations, which scientists name after the
number of carbon atoms each has. Crude oil contains lots of different
forms-from methane, the simple one-carbon molecule, to 85-carbon chains
with complicated branching patterns. Refiners have to break up the
longer chains and eliminate some of the shorter chains to get a mixture
that consists mostly of four- to 12-carbon molecules. 
Refiners particularly prize octane, an eight-carbon molecule. Internal
combustion engines work by compressing a mixture of air and gasoline in
a closed cylinder, then igniting the mixture to create a controlled
explosion. But if you compress the mixture too much, it can combust on
its own before the spark comes along. This phenomenon is called
knocking, and it's a quick way to destroy the engine.
Octane is highly compressible, which helps avoid knocking. That's why
higher octane ratings at the pump are better for high-performance cars,
which need higher compression to generate more power. Eighty-seven
octane, for example, means the gas is 87 percent octane or at least
behaves like gasoline with that much octane.
That second clause is crucial, because, in reality, 87 octane gas-or 89,
91, and 93 octane gas, for that matter-never contains that precise
percentage of octane. It's too challenging and expensive for refiners to
reach that composition consistently. Instead, they're allowed to add
foreign chemicals to the gasoline to get lower-quality fuel to behave
like 87 octane.
Article continues at URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2287001/
________________________________


>From NPR


Tempest In A Foam Cup: Lawmakers Spar Over Plastic

by Ted Robbins <http://www.npr.org/people/4628641/ted-robbins> 
For the last four years, Capitol restaurants used eco-friendly plates,
cups and utensils. Now, the Republicans in charge of the House have
switched to plastic and foam.
On Capitol Hill, it's goodbye biodegradable, hello plastic foam.
For the last four years, Capitol restaurants used eco-friendly plates,
cups and utensils - all part of former Democratic House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi's "Green the Capitol" campaign.
Republicans, who are now in charge of the House, have gone after the
tableware - and maybe more.
Quality Concerns
You can get a good lunch for less than $10 in the cafeteria at the
Capitol's Rayburn House Office Building. And you can recycle the plastic
water bottles - for now.
Article continues at: 
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/05/134278442/tempest-in-a-foam-cup-lawmakers-
spar-over-plastic&sc=nl&cc=nh-20110305

________________________________



>From Slate


Styrofoam-ing at the Mouth

 
By Jacob Leibenluft

________________________________

My office recently switched from Styrofoam coffee cups to a "bring your
own mug" policy. Sounds like the right idea, but with all the water and
paper towels we now waste on washing mugs, I'm not sure this is a huge
net gain for the environment. What is the "greenest" way to drink coffee
around the office?
Judging from all the letters the Lantern gets on this topic, you and
your office-mates are not alone in being confused about how to balance a
caffeine addiction with a concern about responsible consumption. It's
true: You'll have a hard time finding a more eco-unfriendly product than
the material most of us call Styrofoam. Those soft, white cups are made
of highly processed petroleum (polystyrene, to be exact), and they're
almost certain to languish in a landfill for centuries. Still, it may
not always be the right move to switch over to ceramic or
stainless-steel mugs. It all comes down to which aspects of the
environment you care about most.
If your biggest concern is landfill waste, there's no question that a
reusable cup is best. While it's technically possible to recycle a
polystyrene cup or a paper cup, your office will be hard-pressed to find
a way to do so: Polystyrene recyclers are difficult to find, and the
waxy coating on paper cups-not to mention the leftover food
residue-makes it equally unlikely that these cups will find a second
life. If you use a disposable cup, it's going to linger a long while on
this Earth-polystyrene isn't biodegradable at all, and for all practical
purposes, you shouldn't expect a paper cup to degrade very fast in a
landfill, either.
But water use matters, too-especially if you're living in parts of the
country, like South Carolina or California, that have recently faced
droughts <http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html> . By this measure,
using a mug doesn't look quite as good, given that each wash will
require substantially more water than it takes to make a polystyrene or
paper cup.
Finally, there's the question of energy use and emissions. 
Article continues at URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2200158/
 
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