Environment consciousness has been growing steadily all over the world
and different industries are taking steps to decrease their dependency on
the fast-depleting fossil fuel reserves. Steps are also taken to
decrease the harmful emissions especially those from cars.
Automotive companies are also developing ways to further clean the
emissions produced by their cars and not only to comply with government
standards but to also help protect the environment. Different
alternative sources of energy or fuel is being studied. Volvo is one of
these companies which have taken steps to help in saving the environment
from destruction. Their FlexiFuel system that is already used in three
of their car models and such a system allows a vehicle to use bio ethanol
for fuel. This is indeed showing their dedication not only in producing
safe cars but clean cars as well.
Volvo's studies on renewable and cleaner fuels do not start and end
with their development and subsequent employment of their FlexiFuel
system. The company announced that they are investing in Chemrec AB.
This Swedish company has developed a technology in producing synthesis
gas which is an important component in the production of various types of
alternative fuels. The technology that Chemrec has developed is the
first step in extracting alternative fuels from biomass. This renewable
source of energy if further developed will help not only the company but
the whole industry to lower its dependency on fossil fuels. The study in
this field has been underway for more than fifteen years and this
breakthrough brings the company closer to producing alternative fuels
that will have less damaging effects on the environment compared to
currently employed fossil fuel based products. With the
development of the technology to extract synthesis gases from biomass,
Chemrec has shown that there is an efficient process in converting
biomass into renewable fuels. Their chosen biomass is black liquor which
is a residual product from the pulp industry. The common practice to
recover the chemicals from this waste is to burn it up on soda furnaces.
However, a disadvantage of this is that the recovered chemicals have a
low efficiency rating. But Chemrec has developed a technology that
instead gasifies the black liquor from which comes out different by-
products including synthesis gas which has a higher efficiency rating.
From this, alternative fuels can be extracted with already developed
techniques to get vehicle fuels such as bio-diesel, hydrogen gas,
synthetic diesel and DME which are all cleaner burning fuels compared to
pure gasoline or diesel. The investment of Volvo on the Swedish
company does not mean though that the company has a plan to become a fuel
supplier, but they are working on ways to utilize the technology in the
development of newer and cleaner engines. This move on the part of the
Volvo group shows its dedication to not only protect its consumers via
their safe cars but also help to protect the environment through the
development of cleaner and renewable vehicle fuels. While this
development cannot wipe away the world's dependency on fossil fuels like
a Volvo wiper blade can efficiently wipe raindrops from a windshield, but
this is certainly a step forward in the right direction. Whether
this technology will be employed in the near future to replace the pure
gasoline fuel employed by cars still remains to be seen. But with the
dedication of Volvo to help in the development of new processes for the
production of alternative fuels and companies such as Chemrec, a cleaner
future is quite possible. A future that would see us not totally
dependent on fossil fuels for our energy demand, while this may seem far
off, the automotive industry is making a good step forward.
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