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A Lil’ About Biofuel to Start With

About biofuel; well, I’ve not really done any research on biofuel until someone asked me to comment about it recently. I just have a very rough idea about it, but anyway I will summarize my findings that I’ve just done and my express views for the future.

So biofuel, like everyone knows is fuel derived from living things – animals or plants, mainly plants though. I think the hot topic now is to use plants especially grains like corns and sugar cane to produce fuel as petroleum reserves are depleting. The two popular biofuels are biodiesel and bioalcohol (as opposed to others such as biomass, biogas, and solid biofuel).

In biodiesel, vegetable oils and animal fats are turned into the type of fuel (by means of chemical reaction) that can be burned by most of todays combustion engines. Most use vegetable oils like corn oil, sunflower oil, rapeseed, algae, palm oil, coconut oil, peanut, and soy. Vegetable oils or animal fats contains triglycerides (fatty acids) – is like 3 long chains of C and H with some O elements bonded by a glycerine (heavy alcohol). In short this is a complex molecule (long chain) and cannot be combusted. A process called alcoholysis or better known as transesterification converts the fatty acids into alkyl esters (biodiesel) by means of a catalyst (strong alkali) and an alcohol reagent (usually methanol). In the end from a bulk of 3 chains group together, you now get 3 separate shorter chain that can be combusted. You can actually produce your own biodiesel at home using cooking oil. It’s not a very complicated process. The process involves some pouring, stirring, heating and filtering. So after filtering you can pretty much use biodiesel for your car, cooking and stuff like that. Most biodiesel however is not 100% biodiesel – they are actually mixed with petrodiesel (petroleum base) in some proportion ranging from 0% to 100% depending on the suitability of your engine. The purpose is to lower down the viscosity (thickness or ease of flow) of vegetable oil (and yes petrodiesel if more fluid). There are a lot of advantage and disadvantage of biodiesel (you can google them yourself) but the main point is that it’s renewable. Actually vegetable oil can be fuel without having to undergo transesterification but your combustion system needs to be modified. Again pros and cons are there.

In bioalcohol the idea is the same – use alcohol as fuel; just that this time the process is called fermentation which can be achieved by anaerobic process, or use microorganism, etc. The first four aliphatic alcohols (methanol, ethanol, propanol and butanol) – hope you still remember your Form 5 chemistry, are of interest because they can be synthesized biologically and have characteristics which allow them to be used in current engines. Natural sugars in plant (i.e: glucose, fructose, sucrose) are converted into alcohol (usually ethanol) through this process. Actually you drink this type of ethanol aka fuel. It’s safe provided it is derived from plants, not petroleum. BUT DON’T take my word for it, stick to H2O please – while you can. There are lots of advantages in using bioalcohol as fuel. Again you can read the pros and cons yourself if you are interested. Also bioalcohol is usually mixed with conventional petrol/gasoline in some proportion to achieve the desired result.

With the increase in oil price due to petroleum getting lesser and lesser (I guess this is the case where what goes down must come up), biofuel is no doubt the way forward. Brazil, US, France, Sweden and Germany are the world leaders in biofuel development and use. China is making biofuel blend mandatory to be used in the nation’s car. Similar trend coming in India. Thailand had mandated 10% ethanol mix in gasoline. Europe has set goal to achieve 5.75% biofuel usage by 2010 and 10% by 2020. France and German is increasing biofuel consumption. Sweden started to work to end oil dependency and aim oil phase-out by 2020. They are also introducing Swedish made hybrid car and buses. US wants to replace 75% imported oil by 2025 with alternative fuel.

Now with such bold aims and goals by world powerhouse, biofuel is BIG business! Crop plantations enjoy the attentions now. For one, oil palm industry is enjoying the rise in the market price. So do maize, corn, soy, coconut, sugarcane, jatropha, rice and many other plantations. Next time around I won’t be surprise to see lesser coconuts on the road in the next Thaipusam.

Bad Biofuel

However, in my opinion I don’t think biofuel is going to be very much renewable and it’s going to bring a lot of other implications.

1. Food vs fuel. Yea that’s number ONE. Food price increase dramatically. In fact we are feeling the pinch right now. More famine, more poverty, more people without money and food =(
2. Land. Well some may think it’s good to have more plants around but think about deforestation. These are not the plants as in lush green trees in the Amazon. Biofuel contains less energy than petroleum based fuel for a comparative amount. So they need a lot of source plants to extract small amount of oil.
3. Global warming. On the contrary, some research found that burning biofuel is not cleaner but still contribute to global warming. The effect of deforestation adds to it. BTW, I want to recommend you all to watch the ‘Inconvenient Truth’ (wana see how polar bear can drown?).
4. How sustainable or renewable it can be? The chemicals we used to produce them are still petroleum by-products. We blend it with petrodiesel and gasoline. We use fertilizers (petroleum by-product) for agriculture. Harvesting, processing (i.e: heating), marketing, transportation all needs energy and all that points back to petroleum. In the end the net of what we are getting out of biofuel is very little.

Biofuel might be able to reduce petroleum consumption for now, but I don’t think it is the ultimate solution.

Hell Future

Here’s what I imagine the future will be like:

1. Oil price gets rediculously high. Mind you oil is not only for transportation but for so many other things. From buildings to tiny little end products like toys. So people will fight for petroleum until the last drop.
2. Alternative energy source rise dramatically. Biofuel included. We will see wide plantations. We might even live on trees. High rise buildings with plants as tenants. Wind rotors in every windy place. Solar panels in buildings. We will live in the mercy of utilities providers.
3. When the oil is depleted (maybe for another 100 years or get so expensive people can’t afford it) the world stops developing/progressing. It’s unimaginably hard to live without petroleum. So many products cannot be produced when it’s gone – for instance plastic products which we are all so dependable on, medical equipments and medicine itself. I’m afraid we might even plunge back to the dark age. Many people will be out of jobs. Although those in oil & gas business are enjoying the high price now, it won’t last long. Water will be scarce. Getting hydrogen from water is another possibility to turn it into another major source of alternative energy (though no major technology breakthrough now – I’m sure we will when we are desperate). Transportation’s a big problem. I don’t even know whether we will have aeroplanes flying anymore then.
4. Looking for another habitable place in another planet. Mars is the place. One way or another, it is made habitable – I’m sure US can somehow find a way. They started digging for minerals and look for possible petroleum source. World war III (or maybe IV, or V) starts.
5. Life is so hard that people wish to die. When you die your body will be taken as an energy source. Extract whatever minerals we have in our body. Burn our body (since we are carbon-based). No more graveyards – lands are too precious. Perhaps even dying is prohibited then. You’ll be kept alive just to extract energy from you. Your heat and your heart beat is somehow turned into a source of energy (like in the movie Matrix). It’s a nigthmare till you wish an alien would come and abduct you and take you away.

Okla enough. It’s a hell future I’m painting. I apologies but I’m only half joking though. Can someone please show me the light at the end of the tunnel. Too bad/lucky we won’t be here anymore to witness when the near future arrives. Anyway as for now, anyone inspired to start a plantation business?

Thanks for reading.