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Fossil fuel alternative
Research paper on biofuels an alternative source of energy
Search for an alternative fuel
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This is a petroleum dependent society. Everything from the vehicles that are driven to the electricity that is used, require petroleum to operate. However, this is becoming a major problem due to the decreasing amount of fossil fuel available to the world. The solution to this problem is alternative sources of fuel. Alternative sources of fuel can be obtained from a variety of energy sources, including those derived from biomass, various liquid fuels, and even energy from the sun (The New Book).
Researchers from the Department of Energy, or DOE for short, are searching for alternative sources of fuel. Many of the solutions involve the use of Biomass (The New Book). Biomass is created when plants, garbage, or any other natural waste is chemically changed through a process called fermentation (The New Book). During the fermentation process, bacteria are used to convert the natural waste into various gases and liquid fuels (The New Book). There are many popular liquid fuels that are obtained this process. Two of these fuels are ethanol and methanol (The New Book). Ethanol is the most well-known and widely used liquid fuel produced during fermentation (The New Book).
Ethanol is a renewable fuel that is produced from plants such as corn, sugar cane, and many types of grasses (Alternative Fuels). The Energy Information Administration has stated, “Ethanol fuel use in the U.S. has increased dramatically from about 1.7 billion gallons in 2001 to about 12.9 billion in 2012.” Ethanol comes in three blends, or mixes of gasoline and ethanol. The first two blends, which are the most commonly used, are E10 and E15 (Alternative Fuels). The number represents the percentage of ethanol in the mixture. E10 would contain 10% ethanol and 90% ...
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... fuels such as petroleum and gasoline. In order to put the United States on track to becoming energy independent, the use of alternative fuels must be increased. With alternative fuels that are derived from biomass such as ethanol and methanol and other sources like electricity and solar power, the United States should have a good start to achieving the goal of energy independence. The future of fuel is clean, energy efficient alternative fuels.
Works Cited
Allen, Mike. Crunching the Numbers on Alternative Fuels. Popular Mechanics. 2014. Web 30 April 2014.
Alternative Fuels. Fuel Economy. 2 May 2014. Web. 30 April 2014.
Fuels & Vehicles. AFDC. 6 March 2014. Web. 30 April 2014.
Sofge, Erik. The Energy Fix. Popular Science. June 2013. Print.
The New Book of Popular Science Earth Sciences Energy Environmental Sciences. Philippines: Grolier Incorporated, 1979. Print.
...m fossil fuels, there remains alternative resources that can easily be taken advantage of. So why isn’t the United States taking this deeply into consideration and improving this dilemma? The energy crisis of the 1970’s continues on into the present as Americans search for new ways to fuel the consumption. This remains unresolved.
...e has become misleading, for it is used oil to justify subsidies for pork-barrel projects or mere sops to the industry, such as drilling for oil in the Alaskan wilderness. Given that America consumes a quarter of the world's oil but has barely three percent of its proven reserves, it will never be energy-independent until the day it stops using oil altogether.
Semantically fossil fuels are a renewable source of energy, however given that it takes millions of years for the organic materials to be broken down and converted, it is wholly unrealistic to consider them as renewable. As the demand for fossil fuels increases and source diminish faster than they are replentished, the United States must work towards a renewable energy independent state using truly renable sources, both technically and in practice. With changes in the home, as consumers in buying goods and with alternative fuel sources backed by public trust and governmental involvement, the United States could drastically lessen its dependence on fossil fuels, foreign and domestic.
The reliance on other countries for fossil fuels that produce energy have put the United States of America at risk of being pulled into unstable regions around the world jeopardizing international relationships and putting its own citizens in harm’s way. America needs to balance both the pursuit of alternative energy solutions and reduce energy usage. Our military runs on fossil fuels produced by other nations who do not have similar interests or values as the United States, ultimately adding unwanted risk that becomes difficult to manage. There are advantages to alternative energy solutions that could allow for America to become an independent energy nation that would eliminate the need to support and stabilize various regions around the world. The U.S. Military needs to reduce its overall energy usage by taking advantage of breakthrough technologies that could be integrated onto current systems.
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...
Gasoline is thought to be a helpful substance to all countries worldwide. However, the negative effects are far greater than the positive. A diversity of clean fuels is vital for the political, environmental, and economic health of America. Although gasoline is a product depended on by the United States of America and many other countries, the negative effects are unbearable, dangerous, and unnecessary due to the opportunity to use alternative fuels.
Cushman, Lynd, Nichols, Wyman. “Fuel Ethanol from Cellulosic Biomass.” Science. March 1991. Vol 251 (4999):1321
Ethanol is a clean, renewable fuel made from plant material. Ethanol is cleaner than gasoline because it contains more oxygen. The added oxygen increases ethanol's octane rating. The octane rating is the fuel's ability to resist “knock”. Ethanol has a higher octane rating than gasoline. Ethanol above fifteen percent can damage vehicles that are designed to run on gasoline. An ethanol/gasoline (E10) blend is cheaper than just gasoline. The blend does reduce fuel economy by up to 3.3 percent. Car companies have started to produce flex-fuel vehicles. These flex-fuel vehicles can run on fuel with up to 85 percent ethanol. The main problem is
...her combination of intoxicant. There are several better plants to use, sugar cane and algae all produce far more ethanol than corn does. Keep in mind that running on electric sometimes is better than running on gas all of the time, But to see for yourself go down to the car dealership and ask for yourself.
...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.
Fuel alternatives for the future are very important because, we need resources for life. We won’t have fossil fuels forever. It is important to start now. If we did not have any fuel alternatives how would the world be?
Fossil fuels are an important part of life. When you turn on the lights, watch TV, or take a shower, the electricity that you are using is being generated by fossil fuels. The three types of fossil fuels are coal, crude oil, and natural gas. They all take millions of years to form, so they are considered to be “non-renewable”- eventually, the fossil fuels will all be used up. One dangerous biological effect of using fossil fuels is ocean acidification. Extracting and transporting fossil fuels can also be very dangerous. Environmentally damaging accidents such as groundwater contamination, land subsidence, and oil spills occur frequently. Global warming is another possible environmental effect. Fossil fuels have a crucial role in modern society, but since they are non-renewable and dangerous, we should reduce our dependence on them and explore alternative energy sources. Wind energy, hydroelectricity, and solar energy are some examples of renewable fuel sources. There are also many things that people can do everyday to save energy (and, in turn, conserve fossil fuels).
In chapter thirteen of our book, Environment by Raven and Berg, it shows us just how important renewable energy sources are. Currently the United States of America thrives on the use of fossil fuels and nuclear power. The main problems with these types of fuel are that they are both limited and can be extremely harmful to our environment. They cause global warming, air pollution, acid rain, and oil spills (Environment), and not only that, but in the grand scheme of things, these sources really aren’t even that cheap of a fuel source. There are many alternatives to these all but outdated fuel sources.
...outcompete fossil fuels, but by using different forms of alternative energy fossil fuels use could be reduced drastically. Now is the time for a conversion from fossil fuels to alternative energy.
In addition to, a huge issue with non-renewable energy is the fact that we get most of it from foreign countries. According to a recent study done by Energy Information Administration, “58% of our petroleum comes from outside the country”, this means as some speculate, that o...