Archive for February, 2011
How Biofuels Can Benefit the Economy and the Environment
Who would have thought that the materials from plants and animals can be turned into a renewable energy which is now known as the biofuels. There are so many natural materials that can be turned into this type of alternative energy including animal manure, vegetable oil, sugar cane, and wood. But why use this energy since there are still companies selling high-priced energy sources?
One of the main benefits of this is that it can be cost-effective for all those who would use it. By the time that the technology for making this type of fuel becomes available worldwide, it would provide an energy source that is far cheaper compared to the conventional gasoline.
There is also a bigger source of material for the biofuels as mentioned before. This makes it very environment-friendly since it is an efficient way to recycle and stop adding more reasons for global warming. Fossil fuels would require you to wait for thousands of years before it can be used as a source of energy. This alternative on the other hand would only take a couple of weeks or days. It is easier and faster to renew therefore it is more convenient to make this renewable energy.
Countries that would also opt for the biofuels have more secured source of energy. If they would decrease their dependence on the fuel sources from foreign countries, they would be able to have a lower price and more secured energy source.
And in relation to that, since the renewable energy will be made within the country, it would spawn new chances for employment. People living within the rural areas will get to have employment thus, the stimulation of economic growth as well. Moreover, there will also be bigger demand for crops that are needed in creating this alternative energy.
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Did you ever wonder why the oil futures on the NSE are showing a decline? The reason according to analysts from several countries of the world is: the rapid increase of biofuel availability is responsible for causing a slump in the prices of crude oil in the international market where it has come down to approximately $40 per barrel. On the other hand, the Chicago Stock Exchange is showing a rise in the activity of grain futures market which is actually capturing the investments from oil futures from NSE. This is because of the fact that an increasing number of investors are expecting improved earnings from biofuels.
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Sometimes the fact of global warming gets a short shrift due to the more politically-charged discussion on whether it is caused naturally by, for example, an unusual cycle of sun flares, or human activity.
I think the latter question will never be settled to the satisfaction of all parties involved because it has political undertones and repercussions for people who do not share the same political views.
However we should keep the causality question separate from the more urgent one of whether there is indeed a global warming or not. And on that note, the evidence keeps piling on a daily basis from sources whose credentials are in general beyond reproach.
Take the Goddard Institute of Space Studies at Columbia University, for example. The Institute represents as intense a concentration of scientific minds as any.
Dr. James Hansen, the President of the Institute, said during a presentation of Al Gore’s Oscar-winning movie “An Inconvenient Truth” in Dennison, Iowa, that global warming has reached a “crisis” state and its full impact might be felt within as short as ten years.
Hansen also dealt with the “former question” that I’ve underlined above, namely, “who” causes all this warming. He said the quality of the scientific evidence which pointed at “human activity” and “burning fossil fuels” as the culprit was beyond discussion.
Hansen, leaving diplomacy aside, has also dashed the hopes that his fellow Iowans invested in corn-produced ethanol for reducing the impact of the green house gases.
“There is a lot of potential in biofuels,” he said. “[But] corn-based ethanol, in the long-term, is not very helpful… it still puts a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere.”
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global warming is awarning,goddard institute global warmingWhat Exactly Are Biofuels?
As the name implies, biofuels are fuels derived from organic material. Since they can be made in many ways, they are classified as 1st generation, 2nd generation, and 3rd generation.
First generation bio-fuels are the more common fuels that are produced from food crops and animal fats. Some examples include bio-diesel, vegetable oil, and bio-gas.
Second generation bio-fuels are made from waste biomass, making them a more sustainable solution as compared to their 1st gen counterparts. They include various alcohols (such as ethanol) and diesel derived from wood and even human excrement.
Third generation bio-fuels are generally made from algae that are farmed on a massive scale. By way of photosynthesis and the breaking down of carbon dioxide, the carbohydrates extracted from these micro-organisms is used to make various fuels.
So what separates bio-fuels from fossil fuels?
Bio-fuels differ from fossil fuels in the following ways:
Where bio-fuels can be made very quickly, fossil fuels take millions of years to be made. The pollution from fossil fuels is far more severe. Although burning bio-fuels also creates emissions, the carbon dioxide is more environmentally friendly and absorbed easily by crops and organisms. Fossil fuels are non-renewable, whereas bio-fuels tend be more renewable. As long as there is human excrement, there will be bio-fuels. Furthermore, with the help of crop rotation, there can be an endless supply of bio-fuels.
This leads us on to the advantages of bio-fuels:
As more people use bio-fuels, it lowers the demand on pollution creating fossil-fuels. This helps reduce harmful carbon emissions, making bio-fuels more friendly for the environment. And since they can be made from almost any organic substance, bio-fuels are a cheap alternative for consumers.
Bio-fuels sound too good to be true. There must be some disadvantages to producing and using them. So, are there any?
Like any new technology, of course there are disadvantages
Although they are environmentally friendly, bio-fuels have been ironically criticized by the environmental community, for the reasons given below:
It has long been debated on the usefulness on first generation bio-fuels as compared to the shortage of food they could cause. Producing bio-fuels from crops make the food worthless for us to eat. And some people believe that we should rather use those crops to cure world hunger than to power our vehicles and homes. The large farmlands necessary to produce first and third generation bio-fuels can result in us encroaching on the natural ecology of plants and animals.
So you can see, biofuels are still a contentious issue. However, we believe that with the correct management – such as crop rotation – and improved technology biofuels can be a sustainable solution that will do more good than harm. But only time will tell.
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In a word: not much – at least not for what you get. Whether you buy it or make it yourself, the benefits of biodiesel far outweigh the biodiesel cost in so many ways. This article, examines the actual financial biodiesel cost – both biodiesel prices for those who choose to buy theirs from biodiesel production companies and for making biodiesel oneself.
How do biodiesel prices compare with other fuel costs, mile for mile?
• B100 or 100% biodiesel cost an average of 8.2 cents per mile, and gets:o 37 miles per gallon in the city; o 45 miles per gallon on the highway;
• Unleaded gasoline cost an average of 6.9 cents per mile, and gets: o 25 miles per gallon in the city; o 31 miles per gallon on the highway;
• B20 or a mixture of 80% petroleum-based diesel and 20% biodiesel cost 6.0 cents per mile, and gets: o 37 miles per gallon in the city; o 45 miles per gallon on the highway;
• Conventional, petroleum-based diesel cost an average of 5.2 cents per mile, and gets: o 38 miles per gallon in the city; o 46 miles per gallon on the highway.
The mileage one gets from using biodiesel as compared with regular, unleaded gasoline more than makes up for the slightly higher biodiesel cost, especially when you consider that biodiesel prices should only go down over time, whereas the cost of crude oil, and therefore the price of gas at the pump, is only expected to rise or, at best, settle off somewhere around current prices.
By the same token, the fact that conventional diesel fuel is the cheapest of all of them and gets the best mileage in no way discounts the cost-effectiveness of using biodiesel. Again, while gas and diesel prices are rising, biodiesel cost is expected to soften. A gallon of biodiesel cost $5 just 5 years ago. At the time of this writing biodiesel cost $3.30-$3.50 and is getting lower all the time. (You can find out the currently biodiesel cost as well as the prices for all fuels both alternative and conventional, in a regular newsletter published on the following U.S. DOE web page maintained by the Clean Cities Alternative: [http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/resources/pricereport/price_report.html])
Not only that, but biodiesel also runs cleaner than its contemporaries, and cleans and lubricates engines. All of these factors contribute to prolonging engine life and reducing vehicle maintenance costs.
Biodiesel is also good for the U.S. economy. A surge in biodiesel demand, like the one we’re currently experiencing and which is only expected to continue to swell, is expected within the next 10 years to create up to 50,000 new jobs for Americans.
Over the next 5 years, U.S. farmers could see their bottom line increase by as much as $1 billion thanks to biodiesel. How, you ask? In at least two ways. First, if biodiesel takes off (so to speak), feedstock prices for vegetable oils will steadily increase. The price of a bushel of soybeans, for one, is projected to rise by $0.10 per year if biodiesel overtook diesel and gasoline as our fuel of choice. Secondly, the government is currently (and for a limited time only) offering incentives in the form of tax credits on the cost of biodiesel production (see our companion piece, “Government Incentives and Tax Credits for Biodiesel Production & Sale [http://biodiesel.biogreenlife.com/43/the-government-offers-incentives-for-biodiesel-production-distribution/]”). All this makes one thing abundantly clear – as biodiesel becomes more widely used, it will only become more and more profitable, while at the same time leading to a welcome decline in biodiesel prices as well as the biodiesel cost of production.
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Coyle says algae has high potential yield and can be cultivated on marginal land, something the parched central San Joaquin Valley has no shortage of. “Interest in algae as a feedstock is driven by algae’s high potential yield per acre. Some companies grow algae in photo-bioreactors and others in open ponds, with yields potentially greater than 5,000 gallons per acre, by far the greatest potential of any feedstock for conversion to biofuels.”
Despite high costs — from $9 per gallon to $35 per gallon, compared with less than $3 per gallon for cellulosic ethanol — many believe cost competitiveness can be achieved for algae-based fuels and those made from other materials.
University of California Merced Professor J. Elliot Campbell received nationwide attention for a study completed during his postdoctoral appointment at Stanford, concluding that the United States could meet up to 6 percent of its energy needs with biofuels produced on “marginal” ag land.
“It’s been suggested that biofuels production on prime agricultural land could accelerate global climate change,” Campbell said in a statement. “We looked at what we call marginal land – for example, farmlands in the Eastern U.S. that were abandoned as the center of agriculture shifted west.”
Cellulosic ethanol, produced from material like grass and sticks, also is moving forward to commercial production. The ZeaChem Inc. plant in Boardman, Ore. opened last week.
The Valley has a number of features that make it perfect as a center of alternative energy production — laser-flat land, sun-drenched days and proximity to power transmission lines.
The San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization is a nonprofit dedicated to improving our region’s quality of life by increasing its production and use of clean and alternative energy. The SJVCEO works with cities and counties and public and private organizations to demonstrate the benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy throughout the eight-county region of the San Joaquin Valley.
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