Biodiesel vs. Ethanol
Both biodiesel and ethanol are derivatives of biomass that have been processed to create a liquid biofuel. Both types of biofuels have been touted as secure and environmentally safe alternatives to fossil fuels, however the research verifying these claims is extensive but often contradicting. In the following paper, the efficiency and quality of the two types of biofuel will be discussed. The effects of variables such as source materials and production techniques on efficiency and quality will be considered. Due to the limited scope of this paper however, only generalized net analyses of ethanol and biodiesel production will be considered. The production of ethanol requires one of two source materials, cellulose or sucrose, both of which are complex sugars. Currently, corn and sugar cane are the primary source materials for ethanol; however it can be produced from any plant cellulose. Ethanol is created using chemical and non chemical processes. These processes include liquefication, saccharification, fermentation, and distillation (Malca and Freire, 2006).
Today, the world’s ethanol is primarily produced in Brazil using sugarcane. The second largest producer of ethanol is the United States, where it is created from corn. Ethanol has the largest production mass of all the biofuels (Powlson, Riche, and Shield, 2005). In 2003 Brazil produced 9.9 million tons, as compared to 8.4 million tons produced by the United States, and 1.75 million tons produced in Europe (Malca and Freire, 2006).
Biodiesel is produced by subjecting the triglycerides found in vegetables oils and fats to transesterification, which is the exchanging of the alkoxy group of an ester compound by another alcohol. This creates an ox...
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... dbio-ethyl tertiary butyl ether (bioETBE): Assessing the implications of allocation. Energy, 31: pp. 3362-3380.
McCormick R, Graboski M, Alleman T, and Herring A. (2001). Impact of biodiesel source material and chemical structure on emissions of criteria pollutants from a heavy-duty engine. Environmental Science Technology, 35 (9): pp. 1742-1747.
Pimental D and Patzek (2005). Ethanol Production using Corn, Switchgrass and Wood; Biodiesel Production using soybean and Sunflower. Earth and Environmental Sciences, 14 (1).
Powlson DS, Riche AB, and Shield, I. (2005). Biofuels and other approaches for decreasing fossil fuel emissions from agriculture. Annals of Applied Biology, 146: pp. 193-201.
Van Gerpen JV. (1996). Cetane number testing of biodiesel. National Biodiesel Board Reports Database, Liquid Fuels and Industrial Products from Renewable Sources.
With the fuel crisis that is happening in the world today it is now more important than ever to begin the look towards alternative fuel sources. One smart step for the US would be to wean the country slowly off of the gasoline fix and to look into alternative fuels to replace the “never coming back” fossil fuels. It turns out that Ethanol as a hybrid fuel proves to be a notable candidate for this gasoline intervention, per say. Now the United States is currently looking to subsidize fossil fuel alternatives. However, before considering ethanol production as a governmental subsidy, using large amounts of hard earned tax payer money, there has to be many alternative factors that come into play such as making sure the pros out weight the cons as far as environmental benefits and performance output and not to mention looking at the entire matter from an economic or investment perspective. First we need to consider what the ethanol we are talking about actually is and how can we obtain it.
Tilman, David, Kenneth G. Cassman, Pamela A. Matson, Rosamond Naylor, and Stephen Polasky. "Agricultural Sustainability and Intensive Production Practices : Article : Nature." Nature 418 (2002). Nature Publishing Group : Science Journals, Jobs, and Information. Web. 31 Nov. 2011.
Cellulosic ethanol will not be able to meet its mandated output because in the past four years since demonstration and pilot sites started popping up it has only just started t...
The fuels are Ethanol, Propanol, Propan-2-ol. Butanol and Butan-2-ol. Setting up the practicals. Because there are some restrictions on the time we are going to have to perform the experiment, we are first going to find out a set up. that would allow us to produce definite results quickly.
Ethanol production was developed in hopes of severing our ties with fossil fuels in favor of alternative energy, such as biofuels. Although, VOCs emissions are released during production of ethanol in a factory, the quality of air is greatly improved when burning ethanol versus fossil fuels. Burning ethanol instead of fossil fuels reduces the amount of cancer-causing greenhouse gases that go into the atmosphere. Ethanol production ranks at the bottom of industrial water usage, but is still not out of the woods with the abundance of water usage needed in corn feedstock and ethanol manufacturing and processing facilities. Many acres of land are needed to grow corn crops, however, many corn farmers are successful in growing more corn on less acreage.
The tradeoffs of using gasoline for cars are large emission of carbon dioxide and required large amount of chemical t...
Stauffer, Nancy. ”MIT ethanol analysis confirms benefits of biofuels.” Laboratory for Energy and the Environment. January 2007.
The photosynthesis process helps plants to grow and survive before being converted into ethanol. Fossil fuels, however, is a non-renewable energy source.Thousand years are needed for fossil ...
Biodiesel is considered an environmentally friendly alternative because it reduces the amount many toxic substances. Plants such as soybeans require carbon dioxide from the air to produce their stems, roots and leaves. During biodiesel production from soybean oil, carbon dioxide is produced and released in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is considered a green house gas (GHG). However, this cycle of GHG emission does not neccersarily contribute to the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. This is because the next soybean crop will reuse the carbon dioxide emitted for its growth. Another important environmental benefit is that biodiesel reduces particulate matter (PM), hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions. These benefits occur because biodiesel contains 11% oxygen by weight. Oxygen allows the fuel to burn better, resulting in fewer emissions from unburned fuel. And lastly, biodiesel fuels do not contain any sulfur and does not have an unpleasant smell when it is emitted from vehicles.
The economic potential analysis of the production process of maleic anhydride from benzene, butane, and 1-butene was calculated based on the establishment of the chemical plant in the United States. In 2012, the global demand on maleic anhydride was estimated to be around $4.11 billion worth,
...ch is used to replace natural gas. He also stated that, among the equipment used to burn the biofuel, the suspension burner have the ability to exceed 99% efficiency and whole-tree burner can reduce the cost of harvesting and handling woody fuels by about 35% (Brown, 2003). Moreover, the usage of bio-energy in long term is to provide a degree of ecological balance and climate change, avoid acid rain, reduce soil erosion and minimize water pollution (Gevorkian, 2007). Therefore, biomass is environmental friendly like solar energy. Based on the research that has been carried out regarding the synthesis of gas from biomass, the gas gasifies in the internal combustion engine. The relative energy density of synthesis gas is higher than the fossil fuel under certain conditions. In addition, the relative flame speed of synthesis gas can reduce the time for spark ignition.
Phasing out animal agriculture and replacing it with stronger, safer plant cultivation would greatly reduce pollution released into the environment as animal waste, burning fossil fuels, and contaminated water runoff. The animal waste produced in factory farms is dumped into immense open-air lago...
Poliakoff, M., Fitzpatrick, J. M., Farren, T. R., & Anastas, P. T. (2002). "Green Chemistry: Science and Politics of Change." Science, 297, 807-810.
More farmers are now planting crops for biofuel, resulting to an intense drop in food production. According to experts this promising alternative energy source is seemingly causing a global decrease of food supply. As the demand for biofuels increases, more industrialized countries are offering encouragements and subsidizing farmers to grow crops for fuel rather than for food. The biofuel production method was also anticipated to be carbon neutral, as the crops would absorb the carbon dioxide released when the biofuel was burned. However crops for fuel are now grown at such a rate that they need more energy to cultivate, grow and harvest. By the time it reaches households, it would have consumed more energy and released more greenhouse causing substances than the feared fossil fuels would have. The fact that emissions are released during production, processing, fertilizer application and as a result of land use change is highly ignored. Somehow biofuels can sidetrack less harmful and clean resources like renewable energies such as solar and wind energy. Large scale cultivation of biofuel crops, unlike small scale, locally produced and biofuel owned farms are commonly challenged by problems such as severe use of water, chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides. These also often lead to pollution, depleting and degrading available water resources which can cause famines. According to contrary believe of analysts, it has also shown that there is not enough farming land on earth to produce biofuel crops to meet the huge energy needs encouraged by our current and unmaintainable ways of living. http://www.greenerideal.com/science/0516-biofuels/ &
Biofuels were the first liquid fuel, which include oils, animal fats, and ethanol from crops (Kovarik). They use alternative sources of materials to create fuels, which can be a key feature for our future. Our economy uses some of the dirtiest and most harmful materials to create our fuels and everyday uses, which is slowly hurting our environment. The use of biofuels can save our money spendings, and have more of what we need to survive. People say that biofuels are not healthy for our environment, but in reality they are stronger and more efficient. Although many believe that biofuels are an unnecessary fuel source, biofuels are important for our environment; therefore, biofuels must be used as our alternative source of fuel, and