Mean Green

When it comes to producing ethanol, sugar is the key component. The sugar base can vary widely with current plants often using corn, soybeans or cane sugar. In an attempt to use biomass that has no food value, researchers have perfected a way to transform waste biomass, like wood chips into ethanol. Other common alternative sugar sources include switchgrass.

The focus on cellulosic biofuels peaked during the Bush years of the United States. According to then President Bush, the United States would produce 35 million gallons of ethanol by 2017. The most popular method of production uses corn starch which is limited to about 15 billion gallons per year. So, where were the remaining 20 billion gallons going to come from? The answer is cellulosic biomass.

Throughout World War I and World War II, cellulosic biofuels were used as an alternative form of energy. The plants created to manufacture the fuels were not profitable during either war and thus they were closed. These plants used acid to treat wood before pulling out the sugars needed to produce ethanol. The process yielded 50 gallons of fuel per ton of biomass in optimal conditions and used more energy during the manufacturing process than the resulting energy yielded.

Technology changes and the use of enzymes to treat biomass have revolutionized the process and thus the promise made by the former President of the United States. More than $350 million in funding was provided to start the production process. The two types of production funded included thermo-chemical and cellulosic.

Biofuels are derived from the decomposition of biological or organic waste. Most biofuels are formed from plant matter. They are found in liquid, solid or gas states.

Biofuels differ from fossil fuels in some important ways.

• They are a completely renewable energy type

• They emit much fewer pollution-causing green house gases

• They can be produced in one crop season, unlike fossil years which took MILLIONS of years to form

There are different “generations” of biofuels. Let’s look at each.

• First generation biofuels come from sugar, other starches, as well as animal and vegetable oils. Examples include biodiesel and biogas.

• Second generation oils are derived from industrial waste products, such as wood chips. Ethanol biofuel, other alcohols and diesels fall into this classification.

• Algae biofuel is the third generation. These are highly renewable because the algae can be easily grown on a large scale and they decompose quickly and easily.

• Micro-organisms are utilized in forth generation biofuels. Like third generation, they decompose quickly and so have a low carbon footprint.

Now that we have learned about the various types, let’s examine biofuel advantages.

As previously stated, all biofuels are extremely renewable. They are therefore able to lessen our reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels.

Compared to the extraction, processing and transporting of fossil fuels, manufacturing biofuels is much less expensive. Everyone is looking for home energy saving tips these days.

Biofuels are more environmentally friendly. Less green house gasses are emitted from them than from fossil fuels.

Biofuel Disadvantages:

In the creation of first generation biofuels, huge amounts of land are needed. The crops tend to be lesser varieties of the original, say of corn, for example, making it unsuitable for human consumption. This reduces acreage for good food crops and shrinks food production. The price of edible corn has therefore gone up in recent years. This has been a topic of heated discussion with many arguments on both sides. The belief by those who protest large-scale production of food crops for biofuels is that food should be solely for eating. They maintain that many poor people have already been negatively impacted by the production of biofuels.

Biofuel creation also requires enormous amounts of material. With much land devoted to this, less is available for growing edible food crops. So, as more and more land is used for both food crops and for biofuels, there is less and less natural habit for ecosystems of plants and animals.

Another issue is that most biofuels are produced in relatively small quantities compared to the large-scale production of coal, oil and natural gas. It’s difficult to maintain a regular supply of biofuel, so it cannot always be counted on unless you have a reliable source.

For these reasons, many feel the best future use of biofuels will be in developing countries. Here, where fossil fuels may be in short supply or unaffordable, small-scale biofuel production may be a viable renewable energy type. In the Indian state of Bihar, for example, the resourceful citizens are converting biomass from human waste into biogas for electricity.

Weighing the advantages and disadvantages of biofuels, we can see that they are not the perfect green energy source. If you are lucky enough to live close to some kind of manufacturing facility where waste is produced which could be turned into biofuel, then that would be terrific.

If you’re looking for home energy saving tips though, you’ll probably want to take a closer look at wind and solar power solutions. The energy-conscious home owner will find many savings with these.

A review of alternative energy approaches will show the significant advantages of biomass, and a key characteristic is that combustion does not add to carbon cycle in the unsustainable way that fossil fuels do. As the levels of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, continue to rise, the need to address the sources is urgent the world is to avoid irreversible climate change.

As a material drawn from a broad range of organic sources, biomass fits the renewable energy category and can be deployed for generating power. Among the sources available are tree roots, branches, wood chips and shavings together with various agricultural wastes like crop residues, manure and silage. A biomass reactor can also be fuelled by specially grown grasses like miscanthus, switch grass and hemp or from trees like poplar and willow, or using wood pellet by-products.

Clearly one of the significant advantages of biomass is the capacity significantly to reduce the burning of fossil fuels to generate heat, steam and electricity in residential, industrial and farming settings. There is also the fact that biomass is highly available relative to other fuels. As it is possible to continuously replant biomass sources, this fuel is reasonably described as renewable, because carbon released during the burning process is sequestered when plants grow, and so this source is also properly described as carbon neutral.

Using wastes from crops such as straw and husks as a by-product to produce biomass fuel actually increases the value of the original source crops. When carbon dioxide is released during the combustion process, a carbon sink to sequester this greenhouse gas will start with replanting and oxygen will also be released into the atmosphere as photosynthesis proceeds.

With the ever present pressure on landfill sites to take municipal waste streams, the idea of getting biomass from these sites will ultimately see a cut in waste volumes accumulating in these locations, which are the cause of significant releases of methane, a greenhouse gas with over twenty times the potency of carbon dioxide.

An alternative to combustion of biomass is their use in a way that has a lesser impact on the environment. The process called anaerobic digestion, where municipal and animal wastes are converted into gases, is another way of driving turbines to generate electricity. This is an alternative to burning the biomass with the need to plant enough fast growing trees as a carbon sink to make the process carbon neutral.

Ethanol sourced from biomass can be used in a range of new biofuel blends, with the extra benefit of being cleaner burning than the mainstream fossil fuels, as well as the improved efficiency of combustion efficiency in road vehicles. It’s clear that biomass derived fuels can be employed to generate heat and electricity as well as an alternative fuel to petroleum distillates.

It seems governments across the world see the growth of new renewable energy plants as one way to address the twin challenges of energy security and climate change. A key consideration, however, is the need for a sufficient and steady level of baseload supply, as it is not enough to just provide extra capacity to meet peak demands. Sometimes the wind doesn’t blow and the sun does not always shine, and the tides have to turn, all are periods when no electricity can be produced, while the advantages of biomass sources is that they do not have this constraint.

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The recent breathtaking spike in oil prices has finally awakened professionals in the energy field to the very real need for alternatives. As a result, we are seeing liquid fuels developed from plant materials entering the market. Sugar components of various plant materials if fermented will yield an alcohol called bioethanol. Even cellulosic biomass (trees and grasses, for instance) can be used to produce this kind of biofuel. Ethanol, widely used in Brazil as well as in the United States, can, actually, be used in a pure form; however, it is used more as an additive to boost octane in addition to reducing emissions.

Biodiesel, on the other hand, is made from oils–vegetable or animal. Very often, greases are recycled and used for biodiesel. Like ethanol, it can be used in its pure form for diesel engines but is more often treated as an additive. This is the most common biofuel in Europe. The process for producing it from fats and oils is called transesterification.

In 2008, 1.8% of the world’s transport fuel was biofuel. Investment in the production of this new approach to fueling transportation vehicles for the world is expanding rapidly. It was $4 billion in 2007. The liquid biofuels are the most popular ones for these purposes because they can be pumped, and they can directly replace gasoline. Not only do internal combustion engines run cleaner on biofuels, but pollution is also minimized. Biofuels are generally classified as first generation, second generation, and third generation.

First generation biofuels are made from sugar, starch, vegetable oil, or animal fats. Grains such as wheat are fermented into bioethanol; sunflower seeds are pressed to yield vegetable oil for biodiesel. The most common first generation biofuels:

- Bioalcohols

- Biodiesel

- Vegetable Oil

- Bioethers

- Biogas

- Syngas

- Solid biofuels

Second generation biofuels are made from non-food crops such as waste biomass, stalks of wheat, corn, wood, and certain grasses. To avoid the political issues that have arisen from the use of food that is needed for humans and animals to produce fuel, the pressure is on to develop more of these sources. Some of the second-generation biofuels under development:

- Biohydrogen

- Biomethanol

- DMF

- Vio-DME

- Fischer-Tropsch Diesel

- Biohydrogen Diesel

- Mixed Alcohols

- Wood Diesel

Third-generation biofuels are made primarily from algae, which can produce up to 30 times more energy per acre than land crops such as soybeans. However, they have not yet been produced commercially. These are biodegradable and will not harm the environment if they happen to be spilled. Algae can be grown agriculturally. It’s estimated that 15,000 square miles of algae would meet all the needs for petroleum fuel in the United States.

- Agricultural Algae

- Ethanol from Living Algae

- Helioculture (collection of carbon dioxide from the air using solar power)

For the non-scientist, this seems somewhat complicated, but more and more professionals in the appropriate fields are switching to this quickly-emerging industry, and we can hope that many of the problems the world faces now in obtaining energy without jeopardizing our environments will see solutions in the coming years.

Today’s world is facing the dilemma of food shortage. Population growth, alternate use of edibles, the skirmishes between the food program workers and the hungry warring factions, climate changes due to pollution, shortage of supply and above all the energy crises are the issues that are not only difficult to solve but also reversely affect each other. If one issue is resolved the other is catalyzed by this redemption. If we try control the pollution by using the corn and other edibles the ozone layer is saved but the humanity is harmed due to shortage of food. The water scarcity and energy supply are two major factors that are behind the price hike. If enough water is attained from the underground water resources the already falling water table goes more into abyss. The food issue is so perplexed that a concerted action is needed to over come the food shortage and food supply.

There are two billion people in the world who are not able to get enough food that can mitigate their hunger. World Food Program estimates that 850m people all over the world are already famished. The reasons behind this malnutrition are scarcity of food items and high food prices. The economists all over the world are warning persistently to the governments and donor agencies alike to take some urgent steps to avert these crises. Many of them are of the view that the crisis could be as serious as climate change and may hit sooner than climate disasters. According to the facts and figures collected by the world food program the food reserved for period of predicament is now enough only for 50 days.

The world population indicators show that present population of the world that consists of more than 6.5 billion people would touch the figure of nine billion by 2050. On the other hand there is no other earth or piece of land that could be the source of commodities like food and water for this extra population. This earth is the only place to live and get food from it. This population explosion is exerting huge pressure on food supplies and producing food shortage.

Ultimate effects of poverty alleviation are of a great concern for the economists of the future. The uplifted standard of the people of the most populated countries like India and China would pull them out of poverty but put them in the hole of shortage of food.

The low rainfall and the low yield are already affecting the economy of the world.160 million people depend on the 15% of the global food articles that are grown with underground sources of water and these resources are reducing rapidly. The water table in China and India is falling disastrously.
The river waters are also drying and making the bad situation worse.

There is a conglomerate of the causes behind this food scarcity.

If we root out one cause it gives rise to another one. We know that energy is the driving force of life. Life is running with energy. All the crops need some kind of supplement in the shape of fertilizers or pesticides. These things need a lot of energy for their synthesis. If proper quantity of energy is not available the needs of the crops could not be fulfilled and that gives rise to the shortage of yield and high price. People cannot buy the enough food and starve.

The use of food crops for producing the biofuel is becoming the main cause of price hike. The biofuel are atmosphere friendly but hazardous for the people as far as the food supply is concerned. American have set target of 35bn gallons of biofuel by 2017 to decrease dependency on oil imports. 800 million vehicle owners of the world and the two billion starved people are competing for the food crops for their respective use.

The unusual weathers due to pollution are badly affecting the flora and fauna of our earth. The water that was supplied by the rains is not available and drought is deserting the fertile lands. The only way to avert climate disasters is the use of biofuels but in this way people would not be able to get eatables. The maize that was used as fodder for the animals or as a food articles will be used for preparing the biofuel.

Policies of the states are the also one cause of these food crises. The capitalist governments often waste their products but do not distribute it among the poor just for maintaining the price level. The world economic forum devises policies to exacerbate the food crises but without any solid results.The world social forum demands the free food supply for all the people that are also impossible. The need of the hour is the median path that should not harm both the people and the industrialists.

There is no simple solution to this problem. The scientists should double the efforts to tackle this problem on emergency basis. The world can be saved by the sagacious application of all the methods of food and energy production. The people of the future could be feed only if the population and pollution are controlled. The water resources are saved and alternate sources of energy are discovered that are environment and people friendly. Fair and uniform economic policies all over the world can help humanity in averting the looming food crises. Above all a soft corner for the humanity will help us a lot to save our earth and its inhabitants from disaster.

Biofuels are alternative sources of energy that can be used to power heating systems and gas powered engines. These sources are created from feedstock which can include corn, soybeans and algae. The automobile industry is slowly converting to this alternative choice and the change is making a definitive impact on the environment. How is that impact reduction measured?

Fossil fuels commonly used to make gasoline and heating oils emits gases and chemicals when burned. These collect in the atmosphere and quicken the natural global warming process. While the Earth historically goes through a roller coaster of temperatures ranging from the deep cold freeze of the Ice Age to much hotter climates, the gases black heat that is bounced off the Earth from escaping back into space. Right now, the Earth is at a comfortable temperature, but without change and a reduction in these fatal emissions, the warming will eventually spell the end the life on Earth.

The benefits of biofuels are a strong reduction in greenhouse gases. The fuels burn more cleanly and emit less CO2 into the atmosphere, among other gases and chemicals. With every bit less, the global warming process slows just a bit. It is important to understand that the current benefits of biofuels are measured based on the current population. If the Earth’s population continues to rise, the output of greenhouse gases from biofuels may still have a strong impact on the Earth’s temperature so even cleaner alternative are always being researched. The end goal is to create a fuel that burns with 0 emissions.

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