Preview

Biofuels

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1529 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Biofuels
Biofuels – Alternative and Renewable Sources of Energy - Modified from Source: http://biofuel.org.uk/
BIOMASS
Biomass can be termed as organic material which is derived from living or more “recently deceased” organisms. The most important feature of biomass is that it is a renewable source of energy unlike other natural resources like coal, petroleum and even nuclear fuel.
Biomass itself is a renewable energy source because we can always grow more trees and crops, and waste will always exist. Some examples of biomass fuels are wood, crops, manure, and some garbage. When burned, the chemical energy in biomass is released as heat. If you have a fireplace, the wood you burn in it is a biomass fuel. Wood waste or garbage can be burned to produce steam for making electricity, or to provide heat to industries and homes.

BIOFUELS
"Biofuels" typically refer to fluid transportation fuels like ethanol, biogas and biodiesel that are made from biomass materials – but can include prepared solid biomass fuels.
These fuels are:


Often blended with the petroleum fuels - gasoline and diesel fuel, but they can also be used on their own. o Using ethanol or biodiesel means we don't burn quite as much fossil fuel.



Often more expensive than the fossil fuels that they replace but they are also cleaner burning fuels, producing fewer air pollutants and reducing the emission of the greenhouse gases.



Easily transported and can also be easily. handled o Most vehicles require fuels which provide high power and are dense so that storage is easier. o These engines require fuels that are clean and are in the liquid form.



A way of achieving local energy security o As an alternative to fossil fuels that can be expensive, especially when supply is limited and environmental costs are high o As the technology to create and use biofuels has become cheaper and globally widespread.
Some of the major producers and users of biogases are Asia, Europe

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Critiquing Ratios Hcs/405

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Jerry McCall is Dr. Williams’ office assistant. He has received professional training as both a medical assistant…

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Biofuels have become an incendiary issue recently with the environmental, economic and social sustainability impacts bringing more awareness to its development. Influencing factors such as, food vs. fuel, renewable energy regulations, technological advancement and funding, energy security vs. energy price (oil price increase), taxes and tariffs, trade distortion and traceability…

    • 1731 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    • Climate change: carbon dioxide emissions are a direct result of the burning oil and natural gas (but also coal). • Air pollution: burning oil releases significant amount of particulate matter, and sulfur and nitrogen oxides o Results in acid deposition and smog, which have serious ecological and human health impacts o Natural gas contains little sulfur, less CO2 and no particulate matter when compared to oil and coal. o Hidden external costs of fossil fuels – (20,000 people die prematurely every year) • Water pollution: o Hydrologic fracturing technique may affect surface and groundwater • Problems extracting and transporting oil and natural gas Given our Challenges what can/should we do? • 1.…

    • 7330 Words
    • 249 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Biodiesel

    • 1821 Words
    • 8 Pages

    In order to compare biodiesel to other fuels, its properties were compared to that of other fuels to obtain relevant information regarding the impact of a fuel on the environment, the efficiency of a certain fuel when burned, and the amount of energy produced by the combustion reactions of the fuels. While many different biofuels are capable of being used to power vehicles, factories, and other necessary processes, their sources are being depleted while the…

    • 1821 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    bad letter report

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Fossil fuels are of great importance because they can be burned (oxidized to carbon dioxide and water),…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Alternative Fuels for Cars

    • 1464 Words
    • 6 Pages

    It is used either as Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) or Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) when running motor vehicles.…

    • 1464 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Renewable Energy: Yes or No?

    • 2467 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Although fossil fuels provide an inexpensive form of energy, they have been shown to pollute ecosystems, endanger animals and humans, are not sustainable, and cannot provide nearly the amount of energy that can be obtained from renewable sources.…

    • 2467 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Biodiesel can help to cut our reliance on fossil fuels, and improve our energy security and energy independence. It could be massively produced in many parts of the world, the US alone has the capacity to produce annualy more than 50 million gallons of biodiesel.…

    • 113 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Biofuels vs. Solar Engery

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Biofuels, although thought to be renewable and greenhouse efficient are actually not green to produce. Currently all around the world including Australia thousands of hectares of forests and farmland are being destroyed to produce feedstock capable of being turned into biofuels. In parts of Brazil endangered rainforests and animals are being destroyed to plant corn or sugar cane. It is thought that with the increasing need and want of more fossil fuel products, biofuels and solar energy will pave the way to a greener future. Crops such as corn, wheat and sugar cane will simply be burnt and the alcohol produced will power vehicles and machines. Whereas the use of solar panels for household electricity and also in some cases to power vehicles is thought to be a more “green-friendly” method of energy.…

    • 1040 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Secondly, biofuels are more environmentally friendly energy sources when compared to conventional energy sources. As biomass-based energy sources are potentially carbon dioxide neutral and recycle the same carbon atoms in the environment (Demirbas, 2008). That is, the carbon content of the biomass comes from the living organisms, once the carbon content is released into the atmosphere, it will be re-absorbed back by living organism through photosynthesis and hence it forms a carbon cycle with no net release of carbon content to the atmosphere. Moreover, biofuels contain much lower sulphur content than that of petrol and diesel such that the use of biofuel neither leads to air pollution nor global warming.…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    An issue the whole world faces today is the reliance on fossil fuels as an energy source. These fossil fuels include coal, natural gas, and most importantly, petroleum. While petroleum and coal are in fact biologically based, they are using condensed, stored energy that has been building up over millions of years. This energy is not considered renewable because of the time it takes for the energy to build up. Once it is gone, it will be millions of years before this condensed energy is in supply again (Braude 2005). Most renewable sources are products of solar energy, photosynthesis being the solar process that powers plant-based renewable power. The problem with fossil fuels is that they do not use active photosynthetic energy, which is renewable or endless. It is said that petroleum is going to run out soon if consumers continue to use it at the rate they are. It would be more accurate to say that petroleum is going to become harder to find.…

    • 1995 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fuels

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages

    | 1. Very abundant underground.2. Is cleaner than most other fossil fuels like gasoline and coal.…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Brazil's Biofuel

    • 4585 Words
    • 19 Pages

    Chris Harris (2008 November ) Growth of biofuel production from crops will have a direct impact on the land and the environment.…

    • 4585 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Advantages of Biomass

    • 677 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Biomass energy produces less methane in atmosphere. In general, methane is released by decomposition of atmosphere. Methane is very dangerous when it release into the air. This is because methane causes more greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide (la Garza, n.d). By capturing this harmful energy, we can save our atmosphere. This is a good chances to use biomass to good effect while can harvest this gas and put it to good use.…

    • 677 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In our society, commuters and fuel-consumers use not only one kind of fuel. Some use ordinary fuel, leaded or unleaded but bio ethanol fuel is the known cheapest and eco-friendly fuel of all. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/mar/31/motoring.money)…

    • 3065 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays