New Frontiers in Biofuel Production Fernando Robelo Daniel Bowser

Contents Basics of Biofuels Importance of Biofuels Production of Biodiesel Production of Ethanol Conclusions

Basics of Biofuels

What is a biofuel? a type of fuel that stores energy from biological carbon fixation Categories include  bioalcohols  biodiesel  green diesel from vegetable oil

History of Biofuels 1900: Rudolf Diesel unveils a vegetable oil powered engine 1970: Clean Air Act promotes cleaner burning fuels : international events cause oil prices to begin a long climb 1990 on: EPA continuously fights to increase the use of alternative fuels

Importance and Benefits

Why is Biofuel Important?  Demand for fuel is always on the rise  Biofuels can offset our demand for other non- renewable sources  Large scale production would decrease all fuel prices  Biofuels could one day be a significant source of our energy and fuel for homes and cars

Current Demands for Fuel

The Benefits of Biofuels Completely renewable sources; it will always be there! Biofuels "fit" our current infrastructure o behave similarly to the combustible fuels we already rely on

World Production of Biofuel Since 2000 biofuel production has been climbing rapidly In order to keep up with this increasing demand research must be done to continually improve production processes

Production of Biodiesel from soybean oil

Chemical Details Reactants: Long chain fatty acids oil from a renewable source Alcohol methanol is the most commonly used Catalyst strong base is most commonly used enzymatic catalysts are currently being developed

Chemical Details Reaction: lipid transesterification- replaces the ester R group with that of an alcohol

Products  Fatty acid methyl esters (FAME)  Main component of biodiesels  Glycerol  This was once a valuable byproduct, but the market has now been flooded and disposal can be an issue

Production of Ethanol from sugarcane

Output-Input Energy Ratio for Ethanol Process Sugar Cane is currently one of the most promising feedstocks for ethanol

Sugarcane to Ethanol -Cultivation -Harvest -Refining -Improvement in Process

Cultivation Highly efficient in converting water, sunlight and CO2 into stored energy

Harvest Semi-perennial crop Hand harvested Mechanical harvesting (Austoft 7000 series)

Refining Self sufficient Industry Sugarcane is crushed and refined to make table sugar or fuel ethanol

Improvement in Process Plant Breeding Hydrolysis of 300 mg dried and ground stover with 6 filter paper units of a cocktail of commercially available cellulolytic enzymes Incubated at a temperature of 50C Quantification of Glucose Yield with Urine Analyzer

Conclusions

Clean, Renewable Fuel Compared to gasoline, biofuels cuts greenhouse gases by more than 60% EPA-"Advanced Renewable Fuel" Economic Growth in over 100 countries Diversification and Expansion

Barriers involving production of biofuels  Ethanol supply is constrained by arable land availability

Barriers involving production of biofuels  Competition with food sources

Assessment of the Work Promote production of ethanol as energy source, but taking into account the food market and the environment Search for more efficient sources of energy

Further Research  Catalysts for pretreatment of ethanol that allow less desireable feedstocks to be used  Catalysts to assist the transesterification in biodiesels  Genetic modifications to source crops  Home production tehniques to allow production on a grassroots scale

References production