Anyone who has put gasoline in his or her car or filled up a fuel oil tank over the last six months is painfully aware of what has happened to the price petroleum-based products. Since President Bush mentioned energy prices and some alternatives in his State of the Union message, I thought we would look at some of the background about alternative fuels and take a look at two of the more popular alternative fuels: ethanol and biodiesel.
Background
The price of petroleum has become so unstable because of several factors. Petroleum is a scarce resource, i.e. we’re not making any more of it. Petroleum is sold in commodities markets and therefore the price will fluctuate based on speculation of conditions, events and demand for petroleum. The expanding world-wide economy has strained the existing petroleum supply mechanisms to the point where there is little elasticity in the supply and demand equation. Any disruption, real or perceived, will trigger price increases by commodity speculators.
Petroleum usage in internal combustion engines produces a range of noxious gases as by-products. Some of these by-products are known to trap infrared radiation outbound from the earth back into space. This reflection of infrared energy back onto the earth is thought to be one source for the rise in the Earth’s mean temperature.
So for reasons both economic and ecological, we would like to power our internal combustion engines with something that costs less and emits less harmful by-products. There are roadblocks to implementing such a shift. There is a huge investment in infrastructure to move, process, distribute and use petroleum-based energy. No one can afford to simply ignore this entire infrastructure and move to something different right away. So any successful alternative fuel will piggyback on as much of this existing infrastructure as possible.
Alternative Fuels
Alternative fuels will succeed at being cheaper and cleaner if they are derived from the source materials that are readily available in our environment, no harder to refine than existing petroleum-based equivalents, and produce a positive gain in net-energy. This last criterion is often overlooked in popular press accounts of alternative fuels. A new alternative fuel will not be practical if it requires more energy to produce and distribute than it produces when used. Two of the contenders as an alternative to petroleum-based fuels are biodiesel and ethanol.
Article comments
1 - John Spivey
I see Willie Nelson is just now introducing his own brand of biodiesel here in California made from soybeans. He calls it "BioWillie." Kind of like the name.
We could get off oil if we made the commitment. Maybe the government should post a big prize. Look what happened for spaceflight over a 10 million prize. What happened to American creative engineering genius?
2 - Robert
So Iogen admits they can't produce cellulosic ethanol on a commercial scale until 2009 (even "best case" and assuming they get government handouts):
"While conventional lenders are wary of investing in a new technology, the company is banking on winning a loan from the U.S. Department of Energy. Even under a best-case scenario, Passmore said Iogen won't be producing commercial quantities until 2009."
Another Canadian company, SunOpta (with Abengoa of Spain), will be producing commercial scale cellulosic ethanol THIS FALL, without government handouts:
http://www.agriculture.com/ag/futuresource/FutureSourceStoryIndex.jhtml?storyId= 42200421
So why does Iogen get ALL the press? Does the media love hype so much more than substance that they are ignoring the fact that Cellulosic Ethanol can be "practical and competitive" TODAY?
The media seems to be largely ignoring this story, with most of the information coming from the companies themselves (and they aren't doing a very good job putting these facts out either):
here
here
3 - Johniac
Just found an article on Wired News that details some of the work being done on Cellulostic Ethanol.
Apparently IOgen is pursuing using the Jungle Rot fungus to produce enzymes to break carbohydrates into sugars for fermentation, while the California Institue of Technology is looking at using the microbes that live in the gut of a termite to process cellulose to sugars.
The Wired article makes it seem like finiancing is the big hang-up in getting their plant on-line.
The Wired article seems to think there are issues with running cars on Ethanol/gasoline blends, as it mentions Detroit having to make engine mods for Ethanol to take off. This contradicts what I read whilst researching this article.
Find it here
>JjV< http://johniac.blogspot.com
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4 - What's Next In Science & Technology
There are so many viable options for us...if only someone with the knowledge and resources had the guts to take the lead in this country.
It's pretty clear the current government will not be doing anything to change the situation. As John Spivey mentioned, perhaps we need a prize to spur development even further.
Ford, GM, and other car manuafacturers are already making fuel conserving and alternative fuel using cars for other markets, so the basic technology is already there.
Here are some interesting news stories about recent developments in alternative sources of energy such as ethanol, fusion...
5 - ClaudeS
It would be particularly attractive if adding ethanol to SVO would sufficiently lower the SVO gel point to simplify the conversion of diesel engines.