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(Updated on March 10, 2010)
Latest on Biofuels
Latest Features
Orange Peels Can Now be Converted to Ethanol
A research team from the University of Central Florida has recently made a breakthrough discovery: using tobacco to produce enzyme that can convert orange peels to alternative fuel.
Trashanol: Fueling Your Car from Paper Wastes
Heeding President Obama’s call to use biofuels and other clean coal technologies, two companies are now in the race to develop measures on how they can turn government paper wastes to fuel.
Novozymes of Denmark and Fiberight from Maryland have recently presented demonstration drives around Washington to showcase the feasibility and performance of “trashanol”. The two companies used the said alternative fuel to power a flex-fuel Chevy HHR and a flex-fuel Ford F150. Novozymes and Fiberight collaborated on the development of the technologies and procedures that will turn thousands of pages of government documents to biofuel.
World Bank to Buy Carbon Credits from Philippine Bank
The World Bank has notched an emission reduction purchase agreement with the Land Bank of the Philippines last January. The said agreement is worth 2.4 million Euros (USD 3.5 million). It involves a project that will reduce the methane emissions coming from landfills and livestock farms.
Make Way for Super Fuel!
EcoloCap Solution Inc. a company more popularly-known in the field of nanotechnology has recently launched an environmentally-friendly suspension fuel dubbed as M-Fuel. M-Fuel is also said to be a Super Fuel for its qualities as well as the benefits that it can impart.
Did You Know?
A reason why ethanol is denatured before it leaves the distillery:Ethanol and nitric acid could be used to produce explosive liquid substances. Nitrous oxide and ethanol when combined can produce fuel for propulsion engines for space travel.
Ethanol contains 35% oxygen. The human body requires 18% oxygen to survive.
The first car to use ethanol as fuel is the "Quadricycle", designed and produced by Henry Ford in 1986. The quadricyle is also known as the horseless carriage and is driven by the headless horseless carriage driver.
Pure ethanol combined with egg shells in vinegar produces ethanol gel. Ethanol gel can be used for domestic purposes such as stoves, lamps, and heaters, which burns more efficiently and is an ideal solution for off-grid domestic energy requirements.
On his 21st birthday, Prince Charles's received an Aston Martin DB6 from his mother the Queen. Recently, in his quest to cut his personal carbon footprint, the Prince converted the vintage classic car to run on 100% bioethanol fuel distilled from surplus British wine. A nice white wine from a Wiltshire vineyard, to be precise. The Aston Martin DB6, which clocks up just 480km a year - averaging 10 miles a gallon (about 4km a litre), or 4.5 bottles of wine for every mile. The vineyard cannot produce more than their European Union quota. Rather than destroy the excess, the vineyard sells it to the Gloucestershire biofuels supplier Green Fuels, where it is distilled and made into bioethanol.
The CO2 emissions that result from the combustion of bioethanol are designated as biogenous CO2 and viewed as climate-neutral, since their combustion, unlike that of fossil fuels, releases only as much carbon dioxide as the plants absorbed from the atmosphere during their growth. Naturally, biofuels are not completely climate-neutral, since fossil greenhouse gas emissions result from the cultivation of the plants (e.g., use of machines, nitrous oxide emissions from fertilisation), from the manufacture of the biofuels (e.g. electrical consumption by the production facilities), and from the transport of the biofuels (e.g. fuel consumption during delivery to filling stations). However, when comparing the entire product lifecycle of bioethanol and fossil fuels, bioethanol has the more positive CO2 balance sheet. This is why higher blending of bioethanol is encouraged. In some countries, like Brazil which is the world leader in bioethanol, blends as high as E85 are available. This means the fuel is 85% bioethanol and only 10% gasoline!
The first motor sports event in the world to run on 100% ethanol is the Indy 500, on May 25, 2007. After that event, all cars participating in the Indy 500 utilizes a 10% bioethanol blended fuel.
Pure ethanol is 200 Proof! The highest alcohol content that can be consumed is 180 proof.
The largest bioethanol facility is not located in Brazil. The largest bioethanol refinery is located in Innisfail, Alberta, Canada. Although it is yet to be completed, the plant is expected to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol per year. Enough to supply the entire requirement of the Philippines!
