Alternative fuels current production

Table 7.24. Current production of alternative transportation fuels (Bensaid, 2004 Earth Policy Institute, 2006 EC, 2007 IEA, 2006a REN21, 2006)...

In 1979 sulfur obtained as a by-product from petroleum refining accounted for 19.7 percent of total sulfur produced in the U.S. The requirement to desulfurize residual fuels or alternatively to refine them to finished transportation fuels will result in a substantial increase in sulfur produced at refineries even if medium sweet crudes continue to be the primary refinery feedstock. However, most experts predict that crudes will become sourer in the future. The contribution from natural gas is an additional uncertainty. Conventional wisdom predicts that natural gas demand will maintain current levels or possibly decline over the next 20 years. The combination of these factors may increase conventional by-product sulfur from petroleum and natural gas by a factor of three or more by the year 2000. This would bring its sulfur contribution up to approximately 12 million tons by 2000, the same as that predicted by the MITRE estimate for synthetic fuels sulfur production. Thus, a possible total contribution of 60 percent of projected sulfur demand could be met by the combination of these by-product sources of sulfur. 

Peat is used in Sweden as a fuel in electricity and heat production and corresponds to about 1.3 Mt CO2 per year. Currently, peat is exempt from CO2 tax. Moreover, if peat is used as a fuel for electricity production, the operator will receive green certificates, which can be sold. With the introduction of the EU ETS, operators using peat will need to acquire allowances, which will increase the operators costs for using peat considerably. Calculations have shown that if allowances prices rise above 20-25 per ton CO2, operators will shift from peat to alternative fuels, such as coal (cheaper), or natural gas or bio-fuels (lower emissions). As a result it is possible that the use of peat for energy supply will be significantly reduced. 

The energy balance for the production of an alternative fuel can be enhanced if the byproducts are used to produce some of the energy required to produce the fuel. For example, if the soybean meal or the glycerin were burned to provide process heat for the conversion of soybean oil to biodiesel, this would improve the overall energy balance. Currently, the economic value of these byproducts is higher for use as animal feed and other products than for use as fuel. 

The term alternative fuel refers to any fuel that can be used in the current combustion engines without altering the design of the engine. With the effect of air pollution and due to lack and increasing in the cost of petroleum products, it becomes an important to explore an alternative fuel that could substitute petroleum- based fuel in all combustion engines. There are various new energy sources (alternative fuels), which could be classified as mixture... 

With respect to the alternative materials discussed so far, Fe-N-C catalysts seem to be the most promising cathode catalysts for FC application [165, 195]. For that reason, the discussion is focussed on this material system in this chapter. Alternative fuel cell catalysts have to be (1) simple in their preparation, (2) economical in production, and (3) they should generate an adequately high volumetric current density (Jvoi in A/cm ). In order to meet the DOE-target value of the volumetric current density, a certain site density (So in sites/cm ) and a sufficiently high turnover frequency (TOF in electrons sites s ) have to be gained to enable... 

The use of methanol offers the best results in the trans-esterification of oils and fats. Compared with other alcohols, methanol requires shorter reaction times and smaller catalyst amounts and alcohol/oil molar ratios [10,12,15,16,51,52]. These advantages lead to reduced consumption of steam, heat, water, and electricity, and use of smaller processing equipment to produce the same amount of biodiesel. Biodiesel applications continue to expand. Thus, in addition to its use as fuel, biodiesel has been employed in the synthesis of resins, polymers, emulsifiers, and lubricants [53-64]. Concerning the range of applications, new biodiesel production processes should be considered as alternatives to the production based on methanol. Currently, methanol is primarily produced from fossil matter. Due to its high toxicity, methanol may cause cancer and blindness in humans, if they are overexposed to it. Methanol traces are not desired in food and other products for human consumption [15]. In contrast, ethanol emerges as an excellent alternative to methanol as it is mainly produced from biomass, is easily metabolized by humans, and generates stable fatty acid esters. Additionally, fatty acid ester production with ethanol requires shorter reaction times and smaller amounts of alcohol and catalyst compared to the other alcohols, except methanol, used in transesterification processes [11,15,16]. 

A second problem associated with nuclear power is waste disposal. Although the amount of nuclear fuel used in electricity generation is small compared to other fuels, the products of the reaction are radioactive and have long half-lives. What do we do with this waste Currently, in the United States, nuclear waste is stored on site at the nuclear power plants. A single permanent disposal site was being developed in Yucca Mountain, Nevada to store U.S. waste. However, in the Spring of 2010, the Obama administration halted the development of this project and formed the Blue Ribbon Commission on America s Nuclear Future to explore alternatives. 

---