5.089

Biofuel alternatives are produced from plant biomass, vegetable oils, and wastes (typically industrial or municipal). They may power vehicles, small farms, workshop machinery, or generators, and are satisfactorily considered “emissions neutral” since expelled carbon dioxide from the source is balanced by the carbon dioxide absorbed by the plants that produce them. The use of biofuels as an additive to petroleum-based fuels also burn cleaner.

(Bio)ethanol is the conventional clean, grow-it-yourself biofuel. It comes from cornstarch, produced by fermenting the biomass sugars. It is generally used in Brazil as a petrol/gasoline substitute. Ethanol may be mixed with gasoline in any ratio to achieve higher octane. The gasoline/ethanol mix is used as a winter oxidizer in high altitudes. The drawback is, it takes more of this biofuel mix to drive the same distance and pure fossil fuel. Ethanol also has a greater tendency to corrode combustion chambers, aluminum, rubber hoses and gaskets, and fuel systems. Additionally, U.S. ethanol-making facilities must achieve a 10 to 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as determined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

There are increasing numbers of individuals as well as facilities making or acquiring and using vegetable oil in their older diesel engines having indirect injection systems. Vegetable oil may also be mixed with conventional diesel fuel to create biodiesel, which is compatible for most diesel engines. Used vegetable oil is converted into biodiesel by separating water and particulates. Like ethanol to gasoline, vegetable oil may be used as an additive to petroleum-based diesel fuel.

Finally, but not least, decomposition of sewage and municipal wastes by bacteria (biogas) has successfully been used to generate hot water and electricity. Biogas is produced by “anaerobic digestion” when bacteria break down waste in a fermentation process. These methane and carbon dioxide mixes have a higher thermal efficiency than regular fuels (i.e.: wood 17%, cow dung 11%) and are the most economical way to light or cook in rural areas. Most biogas plants are modeled after those used in China. They must be constructed with heaters in places where it is cold at certain times of the year, since bacteria fermentation needs a certain “ideal temperature” (360C.) to optimally produce the gas.



Jason Grace
on behalf of the
BascoTec Internet Limited
Technologie Park 13
33100 Paderborn
Germany

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