Biofuels research broadens
There are better ways to make biofuels than cutting down forests to plant palm oil trees.
Actually, there are many, many ways.
All you need is a relatively concentrated source of carbon and some new technology…
And the technology is constantly being improved.
The newest breakthrough involves cellulose being rapidly heated in the presence of solid catalysts, and then rapidly cooled to create a liquid that contains many of the compounds found in gasoline.
The entire process was completed in under two minutes using relatively moderate amounts of heat. The liquid can be further treated to form the remaining fuel components or can be used “as is” for a high octane gasoline blend. Once in production, this should all take much less energy to make than ethanol, giving it a smaller carbon footprint and making it cheaper to produce.
Meanwhile other sources of carbon include:
Bones
Bones from slaughtered food animals can be rendered down to yield carbon and a variety of other useful elements.
Animal fats
An American chicken-processing giant hopes to use animal fat from its many slaughterhouses to develop biofuel. While there are plans to use catfish fat in Vietnam.
Paper
German microbiologists have been engineering a strain of bacteria to improve its ability to breakdown waste paper and other sources of carbon. It does not rely on the addition of toxic methanol from fossil resources, like many other biodiesels. These bacteria make their own ethanol instead. This ‘Microdiesel process’ could keep production costs down and keep it a 100% renewable resource.
Algae
Royal Dutch Shell, the oil giant, is to fund a project in Hawaii to grow algae that can be converted into biodiesel fuel. Seawater ponds are used to grow algae, from which vegetable oil will be extracted and then converted into the fuel.
Plankton
In Alicante, more microbial researchers are studying the potential of breeding the tiny sea-borne plants then extracting oil from vat-grown plankton. One of its great benefits is the speed at which the fuel ‘crop’ can be grown and harvested.
Animal waste
Largescale farms may start converting pig and cow waste into biodiesel vehicle fuel. It seems that “Livestock waste can be a source of clean, renewable vehicle fuel”.
Milk
In Japan, milk is being rejected for some unclear reason, but entrepreneurs are talking up the idea of using it as a base for biofuels. It doesn’t matter ifi it has gone sour, as the processing denatures it anyway.
Chocolate
A charity road trip from the UK to Timbuktu last year used a truck powered entirely by biodiesel made from chocolate. Actually, before anyone panics, it was waste chocolate from a factory! The 4,500 mile (7250km) trip across the Sahara was made to deliver a biodiesel processing unit to a charity in Mali.
Opinion
All this research is great, and will probably help…
But if we keep burning carbon, where will all the oxygen go?
If the world population of humans continues to double every few years, will we run out of oxygen? Or will we starve first?
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