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Bedros

I feel that government subsidies, whether for ethanol or gasoline, is money that can be better spent elsewhere. The money wasted (and I say wasted very lightly) subsidizing gasoline over the years could have gone towards building refineries that would not only produce gasoline, but the many other petroleum derivatives that exist. The money that could have been saved and the additional revenue that could have been generated by refining and marketing the derivatives, either locally or for export, could have been tremendous.

But, we're Iranian, after all. We've never done things the easy way. Why on earth would we start now?

I think ethanol production would be a winner all round

Thanks Toofantheoncesogreat.

Ethanol is still too expensive to produce to be a viable and practical long-term solution. I know Brazil uses it widely, but it's heavily subsidized.

Kaveh,

It's true that Brazil did subsidize its start-up ethanol program beginning around 1975 but those government subsidies ended in April 2008.

I don't think a government subsidy program lasting thirty years in order to establish an alternative energy program is unreasonable. Speaking of subsidies, the Iranian government subsidizes domestic gasoline prices now.

If the Government of Iran is going to subsidize transportation fuel I think it would be more logical to create an ethanol production industry and subsidize that, since ethanol is environmentally and in certain aspects economically superior to petro-fuel.

There are vast areas inside Iran that are not suitable for commercial agriculture but that land will support native species that can be used for ethanol production. Thus the Iranian government would kill four birds with one stone, so to speak:

1.) Dramatically reduce gasoline consumption (and gasoline imports)
2.) Reduce pollution particularly in the larger cities
3.) Make use of land that is now considered all but useless
4.) Provide steady employment in rural areas of the country

Iran would thus be able to sell the majority of its hydrocarbon natural resources to the world for cash rather than consume those resources domestically. No more gasoline refineries would need to be built and no more gasoline would need to be imported from outside the country.

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If They Were REALLY Smart

and truly thinking about the "big picture", hybrid technology would be in their best interest.

With gasoline-electric hybrids, especially in city traffic, the noise, fuel consumption, and air pollution generated by a hybrid car is a fraction of an all-gasoline engine.

The positive effects would be more evident in congested cities, such as Tehran, where conventional gasoline engines are both the least efficient as well as the furthest thing from "green" or "eco-friendly".

Ethanol is still too expensive to produce to be a viable and practical long-term solution. I know Brazil uses it widely, but it's heavily subsidized.

Band aid

Natural gas does not generate much of a power specialy in four cyclanders cars. This is not an issue if the country is flat, but if you have mountains and valleys you don't want to use natural gas cars. At best natural gas is a temp solution. Of course since Iran has the second largest gas deposit in the world, one has to ask the question why it would even need nulcear power plant, but that's another story for another time.....

RE: Bedros

Thats a good idea. I also read an article about using solar power energy to produce hydrogen gas from sea water through electrolysis, and use that as a fuel alternative in the far future in fuel cell based engine cars.

Anyways, Iran khodro keeps growing, and it will surpass Turkey one day. They produce the engines with patents, and are exporting to several countries as we speak.

A suggestion for future fuel production

Natural gas is an excellent short-term solution to the transportation fuel problem.

However I would like to see the leadership in Iran consider producing ethanol as the fuel of the future. Ethanol need not be made from food crops. New technologies permit ethanol to be made from almost any organic matter. In other words ethanol can be made from plant species that have very little food or commercial value.

The Dasht-e Kavir is extremely saline and virtually nothing will grow there -- with a few exceptions. One of them is Tagh, or Saxaul (haloxylon persicum).

Tagh trees will grow in saline soil and they thrive in the most extreme climatic conditions. Tagh is perfectly suitable for cellulosic ethanol production. Millions if not billions of tagh trees could be planted in poor soil, non-agricultural areas of central and eastern Iran and eventually used to produce enormous quantities of ethanol for transportation fuel.