When it comes to producing biofuels, or any fuels in general (even the ones derived from the petroleum), you use a similar factor, called EROEI. It is an abbreviation of Energy Return On Energy Invested. For a specific fuel it shows how much energy you obtain from this fuel when compared to the energy used to producing it.

For example, for the first generation biofuels (derived from corn, vegetable oil, etc.), the formula is the following:

The EROEI of bioethanol equals the amount of energy stored in the fuel (heating value) derived by energy used for production: farming and harvesting of the feedstock (corn), sending it to the biofuel factory, and the biofuel production (drying, fermentation, distillation). To the energy used for farming the corn you need to add the energy used to produce fertilizers, that are mostly produced with use of natural gas (that could be burned elsewhere).

EROEI for bioethanol is close to unity, so it means that from burning the ethanol we get as much energy as we use to produce it. You can increase this factor by using less energy for production (for example to use renewable energy like solar power to distill the ethanol) or decrease it (e.g. when you haul the corn for long distances).

EROEI for fuels like biogas or biodiesel is noticeably greater. You need far less energy to produce those fuels. Biogas doesn’t need the energy-thirsty distillation but only cleaning and compressing. Biodiesel also does not need distilattion, only the transesterification (the scientific name for the most important part of biodiesel production), that requires much less energy.

EROEI smaller than 1?

One might think that it is not reasonable to produce any fuel with EROEI smaller than one. It means that you get less energy from the fuel than you used to produce it. Wouldn’t it be better if we used the energy directly instead of the fuel, and not waste it to produce that fuel?

In some cases it will surely happen. For example, when you use some low quality energy or fuel to produce better quality fuel. Like coal, that is not a good fuel for cars can be used to produce gasoline alternatives in a group of processes called CtL (Coal to Liquid, like Fischer-Tropsch process).

In power and fuel sector noone really cares about indicators like EROEI, because not the energy balance but the money is the most important factor.

To make the formula I used cliparts downloaded from www.clker.com.

Biomass burning has an overall impact on the atmospheric chemistry as well as the climate. When there is a fire in the savannas, or tropical forests, or like the recent California fire, large quantities of particulate matter and trace gases are released.

Biomass fuel is also known as Bio-fuel. Bio-fuel is defined as liquid, solid or gaseous fuel that consists of biomass. Biomass fuels can be used for generating power and also for heating purposes.

Biomass fuels can help greatly in reducing the various greenhouse gas emissions and at the same time can increase energy security by being an alternative to fossil fuels. Today, you will find expansion of bio-fuel industries in Asia, Europe, and America.

Bio-fuels are most commonly used in automotive transport like the E10 fuel. They can easily be produced from any source containing carbon like plants. Biomass is mostly derived from living organisms, which includes animals, plants, and their by-products. Manure, crop residues and garden waste are some of the different sources of biomass. This is a renewable energy source that is associated to the carbon cycle as compared to various natural resources like coal, petroleum, and nuclear energy.

Some of the most popular agricultural products that are grown for the purpose of creating Bio-fuel in the United States are soybeans and corn while Europe uses wheat, rapeseed and sugar beet; sugar cane is grown in Brazil, Jatropha in India and palm oil in South-East Asia.

In the early part of 2007, Diversified Energy Corporation with the help of North Carolina State University (NCSU) geared itself for a breakthrough in biofuel technology, which has been named Centia. Centia has been positioned for producing military and commercial jet fuel and can even act as a biodiesel additive in cold or freezing weather. The process of developing Centia looks promising and is expected to deliver a high energy efficiency level that can be in excess of 85%.

There are a wide variety of scientific experiments being conducted, globally, to produce a viable bio-fuel that will be efficient and environmentally friendly. Scientists have started to look beyond the bio-fuels and started to work on the various byproducts of bio-fuel that can be used and even consumed as food in our daily lives.

Considered as an integral part of the green revolution, bio-fuels offer quite a few advantages over other fossil fuels like coal and petroleum. Bio fuels have the ability to recycle carbon dioxide with every growing season by getting it from the air to convert it into biomass. So unlike coal, which upon burning releases carbon, biomass in a way traps all the carbon that is in the air. This is an important aspect from the point of view of global warming because it doesn’t release any carbon components into the air. The biggest advantage over conventional fuel is that bio-fuel is renewable and hence they will not deplete the limited natural resources of our planet.
Common Biomass Fuels
Here is a list of some of the most common first generation Biomass fuels:

Vegetable oil
Vegetable oil is used for cooking food and also as a fuel. Vegetable oil is not high quality oil for fuel use but it is still used in older diesel engines, which are equipped with an indirect injection system.

In most of the cases, vegetable oil is used for manufacturing bio-diesel that is compatible with most of the diesel engines. It is normally blended with conventional diesel fuel for optimum efficiency.

Bio-diesel
Bio-diesel is one of the most common Bio-fuels in Europe. It is produced mainly from fats or oils using the process of trans-esterification. It is a liquid that has a similar composition like that of mineral diesel. The chemical name for bio-diesel is fatty acid methyl ester (FAME).

The oil is mixed with methanol or ethanol and sodium hydroxide, which initiates a chemical reaction to produce glycerol and bio-diesel (FAME). The process produces 1 part of glycerol per 10 parts of bio-diesel.

Bio-diesel is extensively used in diesel engines after it is blended with mineral diesel. Some countries like Germany have manufacturers Volkswagen, who provide a cover on their diesel engines as a part of their warranty for 100% bio-diesel use.

A majority of vehicle manufacturers still limit to use of 15% bio-diesel blended with mineral diesel. In some of the European countries, 5% bio-diesel blend is widely used and even available at gas stations

Bio-ethanol
Ethanol is one of the most common Bio-fuels across the world. It is also known as an alcohol fuel and is produced by fermenting sugars, which are derived from corn, wheat, sugar cane and sugar beet. The various production methods for ethanol are fermentation of the sugars, enzymatic digestion, distillation and drying.

The use of Ethanol has been widely seen in petrol engines where it replaces gasoline. Almost all the petrol engines in the world can run on 15% blends of bio-ethanol with gasoline.

With an eye on the diminishing natural resources, its time for us to usher in the bio-fuel era!

Susan is a contributing moderator to Fuzing.com. This critique is brought to you via trade leads from the Solar Panels section of our Business to Business Website.

Article Source: http://www.article-buzz.com

Biofuels are a way of accumulating solar energy. Solar radiation is used by plants in a process called photosynthesis. The energy bound within a biomass can be stored almost infinitely long and is not dangerous.

Biofuels are produced in solid (e.g. wood logs and chips, briquetted straw), fluid (bioethanol, biodiesel) or gaseous (wood gas, biogas) form. They can be used to fuel internal combustion engines, boilers, furnaces and other devices.

In Europe, linum (flax) and rapeseed are main stock used for producing biofuels. In America people use mostly corn and soya beans, in other parts of the world – hemp. Biodegradable residue of industrial or agricultural origin, forest residues, even biodegradable household garbage can be used to manufacture biofuels of some kind.

Biofuels can be used for centralised and distributed heat and power generation. In 2005 of all global energy usage 15% was derived from biofuels. Most of that number was wood used for heating and cooking in developing countries.

Biofuel is an alternative considered to replace petroleum gas (gasoline or petrol). Most transportation vehicles are powered by internal combustion engines. These engines require clean burning fuels, which are generally in liquid and gaseous form (e.g. Compressed Natural Gas). Liquids are more portable because they have higher energy density, and they can be pumped, which makes handling easier. This is why most biofuels suitable for using in transportation are liquids.