Concluding the Class

I wanted to take this moment to thank my faithful readers (both of them) for commenting and interacting with me via this blog. My objective in making this blog was to make people aware of the potential that Biofuels have and talk about how some of them work, how they are made possible applications of them and to see how they might affect the environment of business.

I wouldn't say this technology is revolutionary, because right now it is being used in vehicles that already exist, however I would say it is evolutionary, because it has come out of our present use of petroleum fuels, but continues in a direction that will be better for the environment. It is a technology that needs to be expanded upon by biologists, chemists and engineers. At the end of the day, biofuels are only as strong as the source that powers them, which is ultimately the sun.

SPF 30 Million?

As technology continues to improve, data will travel faster and faster, becoming more and more accessible, but goods and people will always need to be transported, and Biofuel will be around to aid in that endeavor. While other technologies like hydrogen and electricity may be possible in the future, biofuels offer a realistic way of making the transition off from petroleum based fuels.

The Future of Biofuels

The year is 2042. A long time ago, you could go up to the local oil pump and buy gas for 3.00 a gallon. Ever since the cheap oil ran out you had to figure out how to get your car filled. The city officials decided it would be best to build a small algae plant, to generate Biodiesel. This fuel works well in California, because the temperatures don't get below 0 degrees Fahrenheit. However, one plant doesn't provide enough fuel for everyone as petroleum oil used to, but everyone has managed to get along.

Fortunately, you do most of your work at home, in your virtual office. The internet still provides a way of communicating with the rest of the world, but people tend to stay where they live now.

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Currently, there is a goal of producing 1 billion gallons of biofuel annually by 2022. This goal is admirable, but only a handful of companies are trying to rise to the challenge. I believe that people will reach this goal by having a lot of different producers make their own amount of biofuel. However, through the combined efforts of many people, we should be able to reach this goal.

If you're ever interested in making your own Biofuel, check out this video here!

http://solveclimate.com/blog/20100825/report-offers-roadmap-cleaner-biofuels-non-food-sources

The great corn ethanol debate

When talking about using ethanol from corn, many people are quick to object. "Doesn't using corn as a feedstock raise the price of corn?" At first glance this seems reasonable : Using corn for fuel instead of food will raise the price of corn. However, upon further inspection we see that the corn used for fuel is a different type than the kind used for food. Landspace is the only issue. Thus, by the same argument, if one decides to grow apples instead of corn, they are having the same sort of effect on corn prices, by not planting corn. But we don't hear critics of this problem complaining about apples.

What does make a difference is petroleum fuel costs. Transporting corn takes energy, and if that energy becomes more expensive, then naturally the price of corn will also increase. This graph supports that view.

If there were a direct correlation, we would see the ethanol production spike along with the corn prices. However, this is not the case. There might be some other factors, like weather, or an increased demand for ethanol worldwide.

The same is true for soybeans.

Bigger Faster Stronger- Better?

The largest biogas production facility in the US has just been approved to be built. As a facility, it will use cow manure as a feedstock for biogas and burn it to generate electricity. At first, this seems like a pretty eco-friendly endeavor, for cow manure contains methane, a greenhouse gas that is roughly 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The article mentions that the manure will be trucked in. This process presumably uses petroleum fuels.

I think a biogas facility is a fine idea, but one has to account for all the potential costs and inputs. With this system, the cost of operation will fluctuate as petroleum gets more expensive. However, I think a smaller biogas facility would work pretty well in smaller communities, because all the farmers could bring manure to a local biogas facility and create electricity for the community that way. (This would hopefully incur less transportation costs.) Farmers then might even get a little extra money on the side for selling the cow manure. However, I see a possible hang-up in this system. This model assumes that farmers don't need the cow manure. However, manure is used for fertilizer and in a sense, it's very valuable for raising crops.

The cool thing about biogas though is that it can use many different feedstocks, so communities could possibly fuel it with: sewage, leftover food, garbage, farming byproducts, etc. It would be interesting to see how people will come up with solutions for generating power, to see the florist and the pizza shop decide who's scrap bio material will be used for generating electricity or use it for something else.

For those of you who don't know how biogas works, check out this video!


Story Source : http://www.bioenergy-news.com/index.php?/Industry-News?item_id=2457

Company Highlight!

Hey faithful readers! I'm excited to begin a little experiment. Every week, I will dedicate 1 post to highlighting a different biofuel company. I hope to discuss what sort of fuel they produce, how they produce it, what need they are trying to address, and give my reflections about each company.

So, this week, I want to highlight this cool company called POET.
Located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, this company presents itself as the "Number One producer of Ethanol in the world." They produce 1.6 billion gallons of ethanol each year. Well, that sounds good, but why is that significant?

Ethanol is a pretty good alternative to petroleum based fuels. It exists as a liquid and car engines can run on it without modification. Additionally, ethanol, unlike petroleum is a renewable resource, which means it can be grown again and again. It can be obtained from sugarcane, corn, and a variety of starchy or sugary plants. In fact, Brazil runs all of their cars on ethanol made from sugarcane. As you can imagine, there are multiple companies that produce ethanol for transportation. What separates POET from the crowd is it's pioneering cellulosic technologies.

Cellulose is a type of sugar found in all plant life. It's very strong, and it's the reason trees are able to grow to incredible heights. In short, it's the most abundant sugar on the face of a planet. The reason it hasn't been used to make ethanol before is because there is a chemical bond which binds cellulose together, which is very hard to break without using enzymes. (Proteins used to help chemical reactions move faster, and as you can guess, can be expensive) Much of POET's work has been to develop enzymes that are cost effective in order to lower costs of producing ethanol from cellulosic sources.

The Green Hornet.

When I hear 'Biofuel' I initially thought of people taking fry oil from McDonald's and putting it into their modified Volkswagen Van. What I didn't think of was a strike fighter jet screaming through the air traveling at 1.8 Mach. Yet this is precisely what the Navy has been developing: A FA-18 Super Hornet strike fighter jet aptly named "The Green Hornet". It runs on a mixture that is 50/50 Biofuel / Regular Fuel. As of April 22nd, the flight tests have been successful, the Green Hornet is airborne and performs as if it's running on regular fuel. However, I wonder if the biofuel has the same energy content per gallon as regular fuel, because if it doesn't one would only be able to fly shorter missions or increase fuel tank size.

"Any more objections to Healthcare? I didn't think so."

Ray Mabus, the Secretary of the Navy says: "It's important to emphasize, especially on Earth Day, the Navy's commitment to reducing dependence on foreign oil as well as safeguarding our environment. Our Navy – alongside industry, the other services, and federal agency partners, will continue to be an early adopter of alternative energy sources.”

Adopting biofuels is no small matter, because airplanes, tanks, humvees and other armored transports require a lot of fuel. If the United States is able to supplement the fuel supply with biofuels, it hopefully will reduce the demand for foreign oil. However the question remains : Does the U.S. have ample resources to create enough biofuel to displace significant quantities of petroleum-based fuel? If so, how much of it will be allocated for civilian or military use?

Here's a video of the Green Hornet in action :
You can read the press release here:
http://www.navair.navy.mil/press_releases/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.view&Press_release_id=4309&site_id=20

Photo Courtesy : https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAzeJwS8WGUvaax5r2OVZ0rVK-v_k5SPkfR6Hvq4_dSOQGbF9BhyX0-TjJHlydY1i014vhg1fgPnv0dnmlJGcunIoFXftv5TtI1Wv4EYRRSpKPXaSNEOh17QofNhhYliPxBh4dYFI4eRog/s1600/OBAMA+at+Joint+Base+Andrews+Naval+Air+Facility+in+Maryland.jpg