Bio-Fuels__The_Fuel_Of_The_Future

							Bio-Fuels: The Fuel Of The Future

Word Count:
830

Summary:
Biomass burning has an overall impact on the atmospheric chemistry as
well as the climate. When there is a fire in the savannas, or tropical
forests, or like the recent California fire, large quantities of
particulate matter and trace gases are released.


Keywords:
bio-diesel, biodiesel, biomass, alternative energy


Article Body:
Biomass burning has an overall impact on the atmospheric chemistry as
well as the climate. When there is a fire in the savannas, or tropical
forests, or like the recent California fire, large quantities of
particulate matter and trace gases are released.

Biomass fuel is also known as Bio-fuel. Bio-fuel is defined as liquid,
solid or gaseous fuel that consists of biomass. Biomass fuels can be used
for generating power and also for heating purposes.

Biomass fuels can help greatly in reducing the various greenhouse gas
emissions and at the same time can increase energy security by being an
alternative to fossil fuels. Today, you will find expansion of bio-fuel
industries in Asia, Europe, and America.

Bio-fuels are most commonly used in automotive transport like the E10
fuel. They can easily be produced from any source containing carbon like
plants. Biomass is mostly derived from living organisms, which includes
animals, plants, and their by-products. Manure, crop residues and garden
waste are some of the different sources of biomass. This is a renewable
energy source that is associated to the carbon cycle as compared to
various natural resources like coal, petroleum, and nuclear energy.

Some of the most popular agricultural products that are grown for the
purpose of creating Bio-fuel in the United States are soybeans and corn
while Europe uses wheat, rapeseed and sugar beet; sugar cane is grown in
Brazil, Jatropha in India and palm oil in South-East Asia.

In the early part of 2007, Diversified Energy Corporation with the help
of North Carolina State University (NCSU) geared itself for a
breakthrough in biofuel technology, which has been named Centia. Centia
has been positioned for producing military and commercial jet fuel and
can even act as a biodiesel additive in cold or freezing weather. The
process of developing Centia looks promising and is expected to deliver a
high energy efficiency level that can be in excess of 85%.
There are a wide variety of scientific experiments being conducted,
globally, to produce a viable bio-fuel that will be efficient and
environmentally friendly. Scientists have started to look beyond the bio-
fuels and started to work on the various byproducts of bio-fuel that can
be used and even consumed as food in our daily lives.

Considered as an integral part of the green revolution, bio-fuels offer
quite a few advantages over other fossil fuels like coal and petroleum.
Bio fuels have the ability to recycle carbon dioxide with every growing
season by getting it from the air to convert it into biomass. So unlike
coal, which upon burning releases carbon, biomass in a way traps all the
carbon that is in the air. This is an important aspect from the point of
view of global warming because it doesn’t release any carbon components
into the air. The biggest advantage over conventional fuel is that bio-
fuel is renewable and hence they will not deplete the limited natural
resources of our planet.
Common Biomass Fuels
Here is a list of some of the most common first generation Biomass fuels:

Vegetable oil
Vegetable oil is used for cooking food and also as a fuel. Vegetable oil
is not high quality oil for fuel use but it is still used in older diesel
engines, which are equipped with an indirect injection system.

In most of the cases, vegetable oil is used for manufacturing bio-diesel
that is compatible with most of the diesel engines. It is normally
blended with conventional diesel fuel for optimum efficiency.

Bio-diesel
Bio-diesel is one of the most common Bio-fuels in Europe. It is produced
mainly from fats or oils using the process of trans-esterification. It is
a liquid that has a similar composition like that of mineral diesel. The
chemical name for bio-diesel is fatty acid methyl ester (FAME).

The oil is mixed with methanol or ethanol and sodium hydroxide, which
initiates a chemical reaction to produce glycerol and bio-diesel (FAME).
The process produces 1 part of glycerol per 10 parts of bio-diesel.

Bio-diesel is extensively used in diesel engines after it is blended with
mineral diesel. Some countries like Germany have manufacturers
Volkswagen, who provide a cover on their diesel engines as a part of
their warranty for 100% bio-diesel use.

A majority of vehicle manufacturers still limit to use of 15% bio-diesel
blended with mineral diesel. In some of the European countries, 5% bio-
diesel blend is widely used and even available at gas stations

Bio-ethanol
Ethanol is one of the most common Bio-fuels across the world. It is also
known as an alcohol fuel and is produced by fermenting sugars, which are
derived from corn, wheat, sugar cane and sugar beet. The various
production methods for ethanol are fermentation of the sugars, enzymatic
digestion, distillation and drying.
The use of Ethanol has been widely seen in petrol engines where it
replaces gasoline. Almost all the petrol engines in the world can run on
15% blends of bio-ethanol with gasoline.

With an eye on the diminishing natural resources, its time for us to
usher in the bio-fuel era!