Biodiesel biofuels

Carbon footprint of transport biofuels (biodiesel, bioethanol, biomethane)... 

Fig, 4 From waste lipids to biofuels (biodiesel, RME) to PHA biopolymers, including the direct route of PHA production from lipids... 

The urge to find sustainable replacements for transport fuel has led to a drive to find renewable, nontoxic, and carbon-neutral biofuels. Biodiesel is a fuel composed of mono-alkyl ester derived from vegetables oil or fats oil, which is proven to contribute to reductions in the world s dependence on fossil oils (Mumgesan et al., 2009). The most significant advantages of biodiesel usage over fossil fuel are ... 

The sources of biofuels and the methods for bioenergy production are too numerous for an exliaustive list to be described in detail here. Instead, electricity production using direct combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, and digester gas, and two transportation biofuels, ethanol and biodiesel, are discussed below. 

Hydrotreating has been proposed by Arbokem Inc. in Canada as a means of converting Grade Tall Oil into biofuels and fuel additives. However, this process is a hydrogenation process which produces hydrocarbons rather than biodiesel. Recently a process for making biodiesel from crude tall oil has been proposed. It relies on the use of an acid catalysts or of an acyl halide for the esterification reaction, but no information is given on the properties of this fuel, particularly concerning the oxidative stability. 

Fig. 5.6 C02-savings by use of biofuels made from energy crops according to Schmitz (2003), Quirin et al. (2004), CONCAWE (2006), Hill (2007) and BMELV (2007b). Conversion pathways 1 Straight oil —> Drive 2 Biodiesel —> Drive 3 Grain —> Heat 4 Ethanol —> Drive 5 Ethanol —> Heat Power 6 Ethanol —> Drive 7 Bales —> Heat Power 8 BtL —> Drive 9 Methanol —> Drive 10 Ethanol —> Drive 11 Biogas —> Drive 12 Biogas —> Heat Power 13 Chips — Heat 14 Chips —> Heat Power 15 BtL —> Drive...

BP has investments in an ethanol plant with DuPont and Associated British Foods. It is also investing in cellulosic ethanol research and developing jatropha as a biodiesel feedstock. BP and DuPont are planning a biobutanol demonstration plant and BP would like to eventually convert their ethanol plant to biobutanol production. BP has a 400 million investment with Associated British Foods and DuPont to build a bioethanol plant in the U.K. that may be converted to biobutanol. It has spent 500 million over 10 years at the Energy Biosciences Institute in California to research future biofuels and 9.4 million over 10 years to fund the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in India to study the production of biodiesel from Jatropha curcas. It also has a 160 million joint venture with D1 Oils to develop the planting of Jatropha curcas. 

Liquid biofuels in the form of ethanol and biodiesel products can be imported to a maximum of 30%, corresponding to a default case based on solely domestic biofuel supply. 

Today ethanol and biodiesel (FAME) are the most common biofuels. Alternative fuels from fossil energy sources are mainly LPG and CNG. Synthetic gasoline and diesel from coal (CTL) and natural gas (GTL) are produced mainly in South Africa. Electricity used in battery-electric vehicles plays a minor role today. The fuel consumption for road transport in the world today amounts to about 65 700 PJ per year (IEA, 2006a) in total, the share of alternative fuels for transport at the time of writing was about 2.7% (Table 7.24). 

Cereals can yield around 1500-3000 litres of gasoline equivalent (lge)/ha sugarcane, 3000-6000 lge/ha sugarheet, 2000-4000 lge/ha vegetable oil crops, 700-1300 litres of diesel equivalent (lde)/ha and palm oil, 2500-3000 lde/ha (IEA, 2007). In addition, there are novel biofuel production processes under development, for example biodiesel from marine algae, which are claimed to have a 15 times higher yield per ha than rapeseed. 

Figure 9.1 reports the prospective average biofuel yield from different crops in EU-15 over 2005-2010 (GJ ha-1) [3]. Bioethanol yield in EU-15 normally is higher than the biodiesel yield, e.g., a smaller land area will be needed to produce... 

Notably, however, any comparison of biodiesel vs. bioethanol should be done with great caution, because analysis of an industry such as that related to biofuels is a very complex task and all conclusions are country dependent. It may be interesting, however, to compare the energy balance and environmental impact in producing biodiesel from oilseed rape and bioethanol from wheat crops [4], Table 9.3 reports this comparison. The energy balance for bioethanol is more positive than for biodiesel, in particular when straw is utilized, mainly due to the higher yield... 

The role of biocomponents in traffic fuel is increasing. The European Union Directive [1] on the promotion of the use of biofuels for transport purposes states that by the end 2005 traffic fuels should have contained 2% of components produced from renewables. The figure rises to 5.75% by the end of 2010 and up to 20% by the end of 2020. This directive defines biofuel as a liquid or gaseous fuel for transport produced from biomass, biodiesel as a methyl ester produced from vegetable or animal oil, of diesel quality, to be used as biofuel and synthetic biofuel as synthetic hydrocarbons or mixtures of synthetic hydrocarbons, which have been produced from biomass. The European Commission also encourages member states to lower tax rates on pure and/or blended biofuels, to the offset cost premium over petroleum-based fuels [1, 2]. 

In conclusion, the economically competitive, non-subsidized production of liquid biofuels requires (a) the use cheaper and more reliable sources of renewable raw material (b) efficient conversion, with minimum waste, of cellulosic, fiber or wood-based, waste biomass into fermentable sugars (c) significantly improved efficiency of the production processes and (d) use by-products (e.g., glycerol in biodiesel production). Several of these aspects are discussed in details in various chapters. 

Notably, several types of liquid biofuels exist or are under development and have the potential to replace fossil fuels, especially in the transportation sector. The focus is on organic fuels such as ethanol, butanol, methanol and their derivatives ETBE, MTBE, which can be produced by fermentation, but also biodiesel and liquid biogas, which can provide interesting biomass-based alternatives to diesel and LPG. 

The most promising second-generation biofuel technology - ligno-cellulosic processing - is already well advanced. In Europe, for example, three pilot plants have been established, in Sweden, Spain and Denmark. Other technologies to convert biomass into liquid biofuels (BtL) include Fischer-Tropsch biodiesel and bio-DME (dimethyl ether). Demonstration plants are in operation in Germany and Sweden. 

Can biofuel be used to replace petroleum-based fuels Biofuel can be made from biological materials, snch as plants and animal fats. Biodiesel and ethanol are the two most common biological fuels. As part of your research, find ont what biofnel is nsed for. Think about factors that may be holding back the sale of biofuel on the Canadian market. 

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