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Ethanol fuel commonly refers to a biofuel made from alcohol, fermented from starch or sugar. However, ethanol can also be produced by hydration of ethylene from petroleum sources. Ethanol can be mixed in any quantity from 10% to 100% with gasoline to power vehicles, but 10% is the most common proportion. Most spark-ignited engines (the engines most often found in automobiles in the U.S.) can run on a 10% ethanol mixture. Pure ethanol, or E100, fueled the Model T. Some tractors and airplanes can run on pure ethanol, as well as converted diesel engines.

Ethanol's chief sources are corn, soy, sugar beets and sugar cane, although cellulosic ethanol produced from plants like switchgrass is gaining interest. Potatoes, hemp, sunflower and wheat, among other crops, can also be used to produce ethanol.

Ethanol burns "cleaner" than gasoline because its chemical structure contains a large proportion of oxygen. 10% ethanol, which can be used in ordinary automobile engines, is significantly cleaner than pure gasoline; while 15% ethanol is even lighter on the atmosphere. However, 15% ethanol is neither widely available, nor can it be used in most engines, requiring "flexible fuel" engines.

Food or fuel?

Ethanol is the central character in the debate over biofuels. Critics raise concerns about whether utilizing farmland to produce crops (corn, soy, sugar cane) for fuel is wong-headed and will ultimately hasten global warming, as well as requiring even more barrels of petroleum-based fossil fuels to grow and manufacture into biofuels than the barrels produced; in other words, a net negative production of energy. In addition, growing biofuel crops is most often done in a manner that is destructive to the soil and greatly reduces biodiversity; in the worst case scenarios, rainforests are cut down to grow corn for ethanol, an enormously destructive cycle.

Ethanol is also referred to as bioethanol or ethanol fuel.