Why We Need Alternative Fuels by Rahul Dhillon

Alternative Fuels

We urgently need to develop alternative fuel sources that reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The only other imperative that competes with this urgency is the emergency of global warming. A few alternative fuels are serious contenders for alleviating the fossil fuel crisis including ethanol, natural gas, propane, hydrogen, and biodiesel. We are in dire need of other alternative fuel developments and discoveries.

Cellulosic Ethanol

Ethanol has been used as fuel in the United States since at least 1908. Touted as a potential aid to the fossil fuel dilemma, cellulosic ethanol is the only alternative energy source that could be produced in enough volume to make a dent in gas usage. Cellulosic ethanol, the biofuel that differs from corn-based ethanol in that it can be made from pretty much any organic matter, is simple to make and has as its source an inexhaustible resource - municipal waste. Cellulose (C6H10O5)n is a long-chain polymer forming the primary structural component of green plants. Cellulose ethanol exhibits a net energy content three times higher than corn ethanol and emits a low net level of greenhouse gases.

Cellulosic ethanol showed greenhouse gas emission reductions of about 80% compared to fossil fuels. Research is being funded in an effort to make us free from non-domestic fuel by more efficient synthesis of domestically produced biofuel. Resources of biomass that can be converted to cellulosic ethanol in many instances are negative cost feedstock. They are more expensive to dispose of than to process into fuel.

A bacterial culture digests organic matter and produces ethanol as a byproduct, at a fourth the retail cost of a gallon of gas. Entrepreneurs are using their venture capital to build processing plants that will become operational in the next 18 to 24 months. Cellulosic ethanol is on the radar screen of big business and can be a substantial help relieving our gasoline crisis.

The Cellulose Fermentation Process

In biomass, Glucose C6 sugar is bound to cellulose, and Xylose (C5) is locked in hemicellulose. Since normal yeast can't ferment Xylose, genetically engineered E. coli bacteria is used in an alternate reaction path to turn almost all the Xylose into ethanol. The cellulose in Fermentable Biomass is broken into Xylose sugar (gray bar). Then the Xylose is separated from the remaining cellulose (blue bar). The Xylose is fermented with E. coli (top yellow), and the cellulose it broken down into normal glucose (red) which is fermented the normal way (bottom yellow). Finally all the ethanol is distilled (the water and lignin byproducts removed). The lignin is burned in the the still's boilers. Lignin forms the woody cell walls of plants and the "cement" between them.

Natural Gas

Natural gas offers several advantages short term in that the product, its pipelines, storage, and dispensing stations are already in the infrastructure for mass transit worldwide. There are over 1,300 natural gas vehicle (NGV) fueling stations in the U.S. - over half are available for public use. Low emissions. With a cost approximately one third less than gasoline, natural gas vehicles most economically run fleet vehicles. NGVs are most practical for fleets because fleets generally operate a number of vehicles that are centrally maintained and fueled, and travel more miles daily than the average personal use vehicle.

Examples

* taxi cabs * transit buses * school buses * airport shuttles * over-the-road trucks * refuse haulers * delivery vehicles * forklifts

Propane

Another popular alternative fuel choice for vehicles is propane (LPG) with an infrastructure of pipelines, processing facilities, and storage already in service. Propane is produced as a by-product crude oil refining. With about 200,000 propane vehicles in the United States and about 9 million worldwide, stepping up consumption of this fuel over gasoline could limit emissions and global warming.

Biodiesel

Autos powered by recycled vegetable oil from restaurants and fast-food joints is an idea that is under some serious scrutiny by environmental groups. Although this alternative fuel may be cheap and clean, there simply isn't enough of it to make a big dent in our gas consumption.

The conversion to cooking oil is easy and inexpensive. It costs about $800 to convert a car using a diesel engine to run on vegetable oil. What is needed is an extra fuel tank which contains a heating element inside. The oil needs to be kept hot to burn. Also needed are fuel lines up to the engine, filters, valves, and toggle switches so the driver can choose between running on vegetable oil or on conventional diesel fuel.

On the downside are the facts that no infrastructure is currently in place to make the cooking oil fuel available commercially. One currently needs to make arrangements with local restaurants to obtain the oil, often given freely. One must also filter the cooking oil for solids left over from the frying process. With limited cooking oil resources available, there is little likelihood that commerce will be motivated to develop the necessary widespread infrastructure to make the fuel more readily available. Vegetable oil fuel for autos may gain at the grass roots level, and may eventually become more widespread, especially if fuel prices increase.

About the Author

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Biofuel to Play a Major Role In The Future by Anthony Fontanelle

With the fast depletion of our fossil fuel reserves, different industries are experimenting and developing ways to provide better alternative to petroleum based fuels. The automotive industry is one of the major components in the campaign to develop cleaner burning fuel that comes from renewable source of energy.

Volvo is one car manufacturer that has come to help answer the call for the use of alternative fuels. Their recent investment on Chemrec has shown their dedication to the development of process to extract fuels that can be used on vehicles from biomass. This move on the part of the Swedish company is being mirrored not only by other car manufacturers but also of different countries around the globe. The recently released comprehensive study by the Emerging Markets Online group entitled "Biodiesel 2020: A Global Market Study" shows that different countries are exerting effort in thee development of alternative fuels specifically biodiesel. The efforts put into the development of the alternative fuel coupled with the ever increasing demand for such fuels in the market shows that there is great hope for long-term development in the biofuels segment. The market for the biodiesel around the world is expected to grow exponentially in the next ten years as stated in the case study conducted by the energy intelligence agency. The expected surge on the demand for biofuel is in consonance with the current effort of car manufacturers to produce cars that will run on alternative fuels.

Currently, Europe is the largest consumer and producer of biodiesel, but thanks to the improving reputation of diesel engines in the US, the country is now producing biodiesel at a faster rate than the European Union and is poised to overtake Europe in the next few years.

But the strongest potential in the production and consumption of biodiesel is Brazil which is expected to overtake both the US and the European Union by the year 2015. Other countries like India and Chine also posses great potential in the biofuel segment, thanks to their government's drive to pose new alternative fuel policies to help in the preservation of the environment. Another reason for these countries potential to be great producers of biofuels is that diesel engines are far more popular in those regions as it is in the US.

But trend shows that US is now the fastest growing consumer of biodiesel, thanks to the efforts put in by car manufacturers to make their diesel engine produce significantly lesser noise and emissions than the previously employed diesel engines which gave diesel engines a bad reputation in the US. Today, seventy major biodiesel plants are supplying the country its biofuel demand but these plants are barely keeping up with the need hence over fifty more of such plants are being constructed, and these newer plants will produce biodiesel in a much larger quantity. Last year alone, the number of retail sites for biodiesel jumped to 950 from 2005's 300 retail sites. The more than 300 per cent increase in the number of such retail sites shows the increasing appetite of the American car industry for such fuels.

If the current trend in the development of facilities that will produce large quantities of biodiesel does not change, Brazil will become the largest producer of such alternative fuels. Another country that will gain in the production of biodiesel is China. If the country meets their projected target, they will surely become the world's largest consumer of biofuels, as sure as you can find high performance brake parts at Active Brakes Direct. This expected rise of Brazil and China in the biofuel segment is projected through 2020.

About the Author

Anthony Fontanelle is a 35-year-old automotive buff who grew up in the Windy City. He does freelance work for an automotive magazine when he is not busy customizing cars in his shop.