The world at present is facing a crisis of energy shortage. The steady supply of energy from petroleum for the past one and a half century have already passed its peak and is in an exponential decline. The key to resolving the crisis and ensuring a sustainable future is in the development and usage of renewable energy. Biofuel is a renewable source of energy that is derived from organic matter and has a great potential to replace fossil fuel as an alternative source of energy. Human beings have been using biofuels at a very early time in the form of firewood to cook and keep warm, but research and development has to be carried out in order to produce biofuels in forms that are more suitable for the current energy demand and the diminishing supply of petroleum and natural gas has speed up the study to biofuel productions. Many ongoing researches are being carried out to find ways to produce biofuel economically and efficiently, making its usage more feasible as a replacement of current non-renewable energy sources. In general, biofuels are classified into three main categories which are liquid fuel, biogas and solid biomass (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).
The first major type of biofuel is liquid fuel. This type of fuel is normally used in internal combustion engines to convert the chemical energy in the fuel to mechanical energy that is more useful. Liquid fuel biofuels are largely used by the transportation sector due to its high energy density and its adaptability to be used in current transportation technologies without requiring expensive modifications and support infrastructure (Jegannathan, Chan & Ravindra, 2011). Liquid fuel is further sub-divided into biodiesel and bioethanol.
Biodiesel is used in compression igni...
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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).
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With the ever‐rising prices of fossil fuels and the realization that our supply is severely limited, the need for an alternative energy source is rising steadily. Clearly the most efficient of the alternative options lies in bio fuels because they are naturally grown and thus have an unlimited supply, have virtually zero emissions, and can be us...
Fossil fuel plays leading role in upsetting environmental and climatic protection. Our earth is at catastrophic risk by the exploitation of fossil fuels. Therefore, Pressure is on to find viable alternatives for energy to save bring a clean revolution. In that case, Bio-fuels make an attractive alternative for energy than fossil fuels. Various provocative questions need discussion that what are the attractive differences between both the fuels, why fossil fuel dependence are to be actually minimized? Why Biofuel magnetizes the environmentalists and people as viable substitute to fossil fuels? What is the scope of Bio-fuel for safer world in upcoming years? Above all, It will be conferred that why Biofuel is better than fossil fuels.
Biomass is in many ways a better source of energy. Wood has always been used as a source of fuel for ovens, fires, and traditional heating methods, but the introduction of biomass power brought about more uses and more advantages than wood. Biomass fuel products are readily available and can be produced in large quantity. What’s more, this type of power can be used in anything from energy plants to engines.
In the world of global warming, all kinds of pollution and fuel shortages going on, renewable and clean/ green energy is increasingly the ideal solution of energy related problems we have to solve one way or another. Biofuel is one of the mainstream and highly supported solutions nowadays, an idea to make renewable fuel by living organisms such as fiber, corn, vegetable oil or sugar cane. Unlike nonrenewable fossil fuels over extracted by people causing various environmental problems like generating a considerable amount greenhouse gas, current technology already lets renewable fuel like biofuels to shrink a certain amount of greenhouse gas production, making it a more ‘clean’ source of energy.
NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory), USA reported that in 2010 there was approximately 5 billion gallons/ annum ethanol was produced using food grains and production of 8 billion gallons/ annum ethanol is expected in 2015 with the use of lignocellulosic biomass. Major constituents of biomass containing polymers of sugars are cellulose and hemicelluloses whereas lignin forms a protective covering against various in...
The main source of Biofuel, another type of renewable energy, is the Algae, and they can grow rapidly in aquatic habitats that are unsuitable for agriculture, so there are no problems of competition between the algae and food crops. But then, “Algae farms require vast water surface areas to efficiently convert sunlight into an oil used as a biofuel”[1] (1). Also, wood, which is another type of renewable energy, [2] “provides heat, power,
Nowadays, people around the world are demanding for more sustainable energy source other conventional fuels such as coal, natural gas and fossil fuel for their daily activities. However, conventional fuels are categorized into a non-renewable energy source. Thus, to overcome this problem, an alternative fuel called as biofuel is used to substitute the conventional fuels. Moreover, biofuel can grow in interest in many developing countries by using “modern” use of biomass to produce the clean liquid fuels. The uses of biomass as a biofuel feedstock may offer new employment prospects for people that stay in that region. The biomass that commonly been used in biofuel is called as algae biofuel or oilgae, in which the oil that does not consist of toxic or sulfur contents in it (Demirbas and Fatih Demirbas, 2011).
Biomass gasification is a process by which biofuel is produced. It has been used for over 180 years but in the last decades it has been reconsidered as an interesting technique due to the fact that oil supplies are decreasing. As mentioned before, gasification is a thermal process. Heat is added up in order to convert the organic mass to biofuel. The biomass usually undergoes drying, pyrolysis, partial oxidation and reduction. Nowadays the configurations used for gasification are three: fixed bed gasifier, fluidized bed gasifier and entrained bed gasifiers. The simplest configuration is the
With the world’s source of fossil fuels depleting, we need to find an alternative energy source. Biofuel is one considerable option. Although biofuel has not been used widespread, it has been used quite extensively in several countries. Such countries include Sri Lanka, China, India, and countries/regions in Africa that have large amounts of wood. Biofuel has appeared to be fairly effective in developing areas, and other countries have started using it.
...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.
Coal and crude oil are non-renewable resources. They take an extreme amount of time to form and due to that, they cannot be replaced once they have all been used up. However, when it comes to the biofuels, they are produced from plant material and are renewable. There are two types of biofuels: Biodiesel, which is made from rapeseed oil and other plant oils and is used in diesel-powered vehicles without needing any modifications to the engine, and Bioethanol, which is a liquid fuel that burns quite well and is made by fermenting sugars from sugar cane, wheat and other plants. In this essay, whether or not biofuels are becoming an increasingly important alternative to traditional forms of energy under environmental and economic benefits and
Harrison R. M. And Hester R. E., (2003), Issues in Rnvironment Science and Technology, No 19, Sustainability and Environment Impact of Renewable Energy Sources, (by) The Royal of Chemistry.
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/ &