Do You Think That Bio-diesel Would Be The Fuel For Future

[gohm]

Ash you are right about crop production. That's why in order for bio-diesel to survive and be viable they should focus on algae based bio-diesel which can be "farmed" on roofs, water, desert etc. and require a much smaller acreage footprint.

[ash]

Yea! I forgot you've mentioned it earlier in the thread. Thats a very viable option, considering it can also be used to "filter" streams contaminiated by algriculture waste/fertilizers
Heres an interesting read up: UNH Biodiesel Group

But why isnt it given more publicity? I just saw a documentary today on CNN, a segment called Broken Government: Scorched Earth. They investigated the wastefulness of producing ethanol and biodiesel from corn crops. Yet its still being produced? The video shows TONS and TONS of corn being processed. Even the fertilized lands used for it are subsidized by the US government. I don't know how many families it could have fed.. such a waste. It seems the country is priortizing quick ways to reduce dependence on middle eastern oil over finding a more efficiently, environment-friendly way.

I was thinking of moving this thread to Chemical Engineering, actually

[gohm]

Ash, I can sum up why low publicity in two words-
oil industry

I think they are still holding on to corn based biodiesel because it is the most effiecent in yield vrs. mass as well as carbon footprint I believe. I do not think it will take long for algae to equal that in corn as it is much newer tech. Plus, as we have discussed, they are missing the acreage usage/footprint issue as well. The other point you bring up is sad, the wastefulness. Even bio-fuel aside, the US and Europe throws away large amounts of food product every year (corn, wheat, grains, fruits) because of market prices and quality issues (that may not be harmful issues). Modern society is very wasteful, myself included sadly.

[gohm]

Ash-

also, go ahead and move this thread. It'll help add some action to the chem forum.

[ash]

*bump*

Just in case some of you missed my post on Engineering TV in May (Check out Engineering TV!), here are two short videos regarding Algae based bio-fuels.

Intro of algae biofuels
Algae-based Biofuel - Engineering TV

Intro of the bioreactors
Microalgae Bioreactors - Engineering TV

Both vids are split into 2 parts, with a short ad in between.

Be sure to check the rest of the vids!

[kvbhardu]

hey
lots of variety in this topic... i go with fuel cells... especially water fuel cells... its a variant of a regular fuel cell but uses hydrogen and oxygen obtained form electrolysis as inputs... they react 2 produce electricity by the normal procedure... n guess d final product?? water n heat...
only problem is tat its been done on small scale... research still goin on... but its gonna b the future fuel

[raj87verma88]

Hi kvbhardi,
First of all welcome to CE. I hope you will love here. Now to the basic rules of this forum.
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[Alien]

Well! Looking at the present scenario its quite obvious that the future of the transport lies on the alternate fuel, Yes any one among them would do but Bio-diesel also seems to be a promising substitute.So Cheers to Bio!!

[sajid]

dear sir i need some help in my final year project in failure anaysis of leaf spring.

[Dieselman]

Short answer: No

Explanation: Food based fuel is a crime against humanity. It shows the shady world that today's lobbyist driven political scene can get us into. Let's hope whoever gets into the White House in Jan, will at least try to limit some of this.

In ChE terms: ChE is sometimes defined as the science of adding value to material. When you convert food into fuel, you are not adding value, you are destroying it.

There is a better way: When you convert waste into fuel, you're back to adding value. 57% of landfill waste is renewable (biofuel). 84% is organic (the difference is mainly plastic). And that's after recycling, which seems to be hitting a ceiling. In the US that's 95 million tons a year of renewables, 138 million tons of organics. 2005 Numbers, courtesy of the USEPA.

Not that it is enough to get us off foreign oil, but it is enough for a decent start. Once we approach full use of our wastes we can start looking at energy crops, having developed a better understanding of what is required.

The problem with biodiesel is that it needs a fairly clean feedstock, lots of methanol (or etahanol) and some catalyst. Great for a DIY project in the garage. Not so great on an industrial scale. Alternative processes (such as TDP, gasification/Fischer-Tropsch) produce a superior product (chemically equivalent to petro-diesel) from dirtier feedstock. G/F-T can also use non lipid feedtocks (most of the available biomass is in the form of cellulose), which biodiesel cannot. The alternatives also don't produce unwanted byproducts (market for glycerine is in the tank, thanks to biodiesel).

Hydrogen: Going nowhere fast. Why convert your clean energy to a form that is difficult to store without leaking, expensive to transport and dangerous to handle on top of that? You're better off using the clean energy in its original form (whatever that is).