Biofuel - today essays

Biofuel - today essays In todays world day in and day out we see fleets of cars, buses, two-wheelers and trucks on our streets. Poisonous fumes damaging our lungs, noise pollution deafening our ears and harried commuters fed up with their lot. Is this what mankind has come to? Imagine the situation in a few years when the existing sources of fuel are almost exhausted! Shortage of petrol, shortage of cooking gas and scarcity of fuel in industries. Prices of all types of fuel will shoot up making life all the more expensive. Utter chaos! That is what the scenario will be especially in the major cities of the world. Isnt it time we looked out for alternative sources! Energy is the key for food, housing, production and transportation. There is nothing more important for a developing country like India than a good energy plan. Therefore biofuel is todays extreme need. Well, what is this biofuel? In contrast to fuel based on products derived from the petrochemical industry, biofuel is based on raw material derived from living organisms and therefore can be classified as a renewable resource. Biofuel can be of microbial or of plant origin. Of the microbial biofuel products, three basic types are fuel alcohol, biogas which is also known as methane and hydrogen. At present there are 2 main markets for fuel alcohol, Brazil (Proalcohol) and U.S.A. (Gasohol) used either blended with petroleum or as 95% Ethanol) water mixture in purpose-built engines. Biogas is the term used for anaerobic methane production, a biochemical reaction in which CO2 is the ultimate electron acceptor producing either CO or CH4. Since both of these products are volatile they are relatively easy to obtain in pure form. Biological hydrogen production is done mostly during nitrogen fixation. Biofuel has millions of uses as well. One of the first benefits Rudolph Diesel a german engineer said, The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may s ...