With the soaring prices of fuel, people are looking for alternatives to keep fuel expenses down. There are many things you can do to save fuel, but what about biofuel? Can I use it and is it cheaper?
What is Biofuel?
There are 2 kinds of biofuels; bioethanol and biodiesel.
Bioethanol
Ethanol is an alcohol and is made when yeast turns carbohydrates (sugar) into alcohol through the process of fermentation. This source could be from food sources like grain crops, fruits, and sugar cane or from non-food sources like grass and trees or agricultural residue. The cell walls of plants consist of cellulose which is a polysaccharide. Polysaccharide is a long chain of sugar molecules, more precisely glucose. Bioethanol can be used in its pure form (E100) but is usually used as an additive in biofuel to increase its octane rating and it also helps to lower emissions.
Biodiesel
Biodiesel is produced from animal fats and plant oils through the process of transesterification. Making biodiesel through Transesterification is the process where the organic group of an ester is exchanged with the organic group of an alcohol where the catalyst is an acid or base. Biodiesel can also be used in its pure form (B100) but is usually used as an additive to diesel for lower emissions. Using it in its pure form in diesel engines might cause performance issues, especially during cold months. Pure biodiesel gets viscous during wintertime.
What is an octane rating?
It is the measure of a fuel’s ability to withstand compression in an internal combustion engine without detonating. Fuel with a high octane rating can withstand more compression before detonating compared to fuel with a lower octane rating. Fuels with a higher octane rating are used in higher compression gasoline engines which these engines are normally of higher performance because of engine design.
Fuel with a lower octane rating is more suited for diesel engines (compression-ignition engines). Diesel engines do not compress the fuel but rather air, and then inject fuel into the air that was heated through compression.
Gasoline engines (spark-ignition engines) rely on fuel and air compressed together in a mixture and ignited by electric spark plugs.
Advantages of biofuel
- Emits fewer greenhouse-gas emissions, gasoline engines emit nitrogen oxide and acetaldehydes into the air and form smog when it reacts with sunlight. Air pollution can cause lung diseases as well as cancer.
- Can contribute to better fuel efficiency
- Sustainability; biofuels are made from renewable organic material that can be grown anywhere. Fossil fuel reserves will be depleted one day and producing your own local biofuels will decrease the dependence on fossil fuel suppliers which are normally foreign.
- Biofuel production has a positive economic effect
- Biofuels offer high-quality performance and engines lasts longer because of the reduced viscosity.
- Carbon neutral; plants photosynthesize and use carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen, when it is burned in the car’s engine it forms carbon dioxide again. The amount of carbon absorption and release are more or less the same.
Disadvantages of biofuel
- The production cost of biofuel remains high, increasing biofuel production will have high initial costs.
- Crops needed for biofuel need lots of space to grow and it decreases the area’s plant genetic diversity which may have negative long-term effects.
- Growing crops for biofuel production versus growing crops for food sources. More farms can convert to growing crops for biofuel production leaving fewer crops for food. Food prices may ultimately be negatively impacted.
- The use of fertilizer on the crops could be harmful to the land and surrounding area. Water pollution may be an issue. Might also negatively affect animal and human life.
- These big crops need lots of water and may have a negative effect on the water supply in the region ultimately.
Conclusion
Biofuel production technology at the moment is still lacking and not efficient enough. More research must still be done to bring it up to speed and to make it more cost-effective. The development of necessary facilities has a high initial cost together with acquiring land and planting crops.
Currently, most biofuels are much more expensive than petrol or diesel, the amount of biofuel in circulation is still very low and can’t be acquired by anyone. At the moment biofuel in most cases is used as additives with petrol and diesel. Biodiesel is blended with fossil diesel and can make out between 5% and 20% of the blend. Bioethanol can be blended with fossil petrol up to 5%.
