I remember when ethanol was promoted.
The local radio station set up a race at the state fair. two small equal cars at a low speed and the cars did just the same in mileage.
Increase the weight and speed and you get quite different results.
Everything has appropriate application. I have 2000 dodge caravan and around town errand’s it is a good deal with the 85% ethanol. When I leave town with a load, I take the suburban.
You can make ethanol from water, CO2 and electrons. You also can make it from syngas (CO,H2) via bacteria fermentation.
LanzaTech are big boys in the chemicals world they have more than one multiple million gallon per year set ups in China using CO gas from steel mills which would be waste instead they make fuel with it.
LanzaTech also makes 100+ other chemicals via it’s engineered bacteria who turn out in a 1:10 ratio single cell protein to liquid or gas product they have a fixed bed process that drops that to near 1:100 the protein is complete with all 9 essential amino acids. They are also commercializing a process that goes in the other direction it only makes complete protein from CO and or H2 gases via bacteria that eat either as it’s energy source, if fed H2 a carbon source like CO2 is needed. Same types of bacteria can eat protons directly when from the H2 side of a water spitting electrolysis cells thus going directly from electrons to whatever that GMO bacteria is programmed to spit out. So far any of the alcohols, most of the sugars, fatty acids,starch,cellulose,proteins all have been programmed into bacteria or archea cells that can “eat” protons directly.
https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2017/06/discovery-sustainable-source-ethanol
https://www.ornl.gov/news/nano-spike-catalysts-convert-carbon-dioxide-directly-ethanol