diesel fuel

Biofuels and Future Potential Problems Down the Road

Future Of Biofuels , , , , 0 Comment

It is quite possible that there will be future potential problems and issues with biofuels down the road. For instance if we are to break our addiction to Middle Eastern foreign oil we will need to produce 15% or more of our fuel by growing it here in the United States Midwest, but to do that we need to produce quite a bit of it. It is possible to grow it, but we need refining capacity and a distribution network to get to market. Additionally people will need to have cars, which run on flex fuels or can run both diesel and ethanol.

After we hit 15% biofuels we will need to expand at 10% per year and that will be tough because there’s only so much water and only so much farmland to make this and not all the cars on the road are capable of using E85 Ethanol, which is 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. It would destroy your car engine if your car was not made for this. Most automobiles can run 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline without too much problem or damage to the engine.

If our goal is to break America’s addiction to Middle Eastern foreign oil we will need to ramp up the process quicker and figure out a way to get all the ethanol and biofuels to market for both personal automobiles and over the road trucks. We should also look into ways to allow biofuels to be used in aviation in the future. Bio-diesel must be available at truck stops, card key fuel stations, travel centers and large government GSA offices.

We know from the past that blended fuel programs have been very popular in many states but generally this is because of the discounted fuel tax, which keeps the price lower than regular gasoline or diesel fuel. In the future ethanol will have to cost less to produce and deliver to market than gasoline. That might be difficult considering that OPEC will lower the price of their oil in order to keep ethanol away from the American people. All these issues are very important considerations and we must think on this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow

Is A Biodiesel Plant Worth Investing In?

Future Of Biofuels , , , , 0 Comment

Biodiesel is exciting because it has the potential to save an extensive amount of money in fuel costs, not to mention easing our dependency on foreign oil and the impact on the environment that fossil fuel has had. A necessary component to making biodiesel fuel are processing plants. Because this technology is so new, the number of biodiesel plant manufacturers is very low. This is posing somewhat of a problem because mass production of biodiesel fuel cannot occur without a good number of biodiesel plants.

The production of biodiesel fuel can open up great investment opportunities. Think of how many types of vehicles use diesel fuel including cement mixers, school buses and farm vehicles. This is a huge volume of vehicles on the road that use diesel. Now think what the impact would be of all those vehicles using biodiesel. Now can you see the incredible investment opportunity that exists? In my opinion investing in a biodiesel plant is a great way to see tremendous profits come to you in the future.

Because this is such a new technology, you will probably not find the energy giants investing in a biodiesel plant anytime soon. That is why small start up companies are looking for investment capital. They need the funds for research and development. Raising money to build a biodiesel plant for processing purposes would require companies to obtain private equity investment venture capital. This means that you would be investing in a company that is not publicly traded, they are a private company. If you buy stock in a private company, you will sell or withdraw your shares. Instead, you receive dividend payments over a specified amount of time.

This type of investing is something that a lot of people do not have the stomach for because it is a risk. No one can say for certain that investing in a biodiesel plant will reap long term gains. But think of it this way. What are people and companies willing to do to save money of fuel and ease our dependency of foreign oil? It would seem like this technology is going to be around for a long time and may very well be the future of alternative fuel sources.

We’ve all heard of people who got in early on Adobe stock or IBM stock and have marveled at the apparent luck of those people. This may be an opportunity for others to get in on the ground floor of a huge opportunity.

Bio Fuel and Bio Diesel

The Facts , , , 0 Comment

Grow our own fuel is the battle cry of the move to bio fuels and bio diesel. In fact the American Trucking Association is now endorsing a plan for up to 5% blend of all diesel fuel to be bio diesel.

Sound great right, well a few climate-ologists say not so fast, what about severe storms and crop failures? In fact I myself have some issues with Bio-Diesel that no one has bothered to answer for me. You see it takes water to grow our fuel. The more we need Bio-Fuel the more water we need to process and to grow the Bio Diesel. It also takes fuel to grow it from the Tractors and farm equipment also that also includes turbines to keep crops from freezing, cultivators, irrigation pumps, etc.

Indeed as Monsanto with terminator seeds and Cargill with genetically modified seeds are getting the growing water usage issues down to 2-gallons of water to grow the equivalent of one gallons of fuel. Then it takes 8-gallons to process and refine with fairly good super water purification, filtration and recycling. That means it takes 10 gallons of water to produce one gallon of fuel and Lots of capital costs too to build all these refineries and filtration stations.

But if our bio-fuel is subsidized by government, by reducing taxes and funding, then it seems in the end economically it is not a good deal? If the government halved the taxes on fuel now, the prices would come down by quite a bit and help our economy and lower normal diesel prices and thus, make the competition of Bio-fuels real cost even more gapped. Crude is relatively free, you suck it out of the ground. That is a good amount of cost of goods sold. Like selling dirt and filtering out the rocks and selling those for people’s gardens. We take crude and refine it and then sell the other to chemical and plastic companies.

The issues are with the efficiency in getting the Bio Fuels grown, ready and to market Then there are the bouquet fuel issues demanded by governments. So Bio-Fuels have some reality checks and hurdles to get over in my opinion, I want the real numbers. Sounds like a Corporate Welfare deal without a demand for deadline proof, that it is really economically viable, without fudging the figures? So much for SOX, free pass on Bio-Fuels? I have questions, no one will answer and you cannot find them in Ethanol News or any other place, so I kind of like the “Turn Coal into Fuel” better. Battelle has some very interesting new technologies there and the State of Montana is up on the Research stuff there too and it is getting some political play also.

I have nothing against whatever makes sense, but it must be economically feasible and viable before we go running off without an efficient solution to our supply and demand issues in the World Wide markets as China and India come online with needs of their own, needs which will eventually far surpass the demand here at home. Yes we need to do something, will someone please show me the real numbers, complete reality and stop the BS? Think on this.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is an online writer in retirement.

Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow

Biodiesel, Fueling the Future

Future Of Biofuels , , , , 0 Comment

Imagine heading to the gas station and filling your gas tank with something other than petroleum. Many people don’t even realize that there is a potential option. Biodiesel is a fuel that is both clean burning and produced with renewable resources. Biodiesel is also biodegradable. It can be described as a diesel fuel that is made from a source other than petroleum.

Biodiesel can be created with either animal fats or simple vegetable oil. This particular fuel option isn’t a new concept, the idea was first brought up in Brussels in 1937, but it is gaining popularity and will likely become the fuel of the future. With the increasing fuel prices and a pending energy crisis looming, something has to change when it comes to filling our gas tanks. Some gas stations are already offering biodisel but very few people understand exactly what biodiesel is and how it will benefit the United Sates population.

The US Postal Service is already using biodiesel in its fleet. A popular misconception about biodiesel is that all engines will have to be retrofitted or redesigned. Not true, Biodisel will work in any diesel engine. It can also be blended for use in vehicles without diesel engines. Another benefit, biodiesel can be produced with United States grown products.

The United States will no longer have to rely on the Middle East for fuel and be dependent upon their resources. Our fuel prices and availability will not be contingent upon their government or politics. Using US grown products also gives the money back to the United States economy and not to the Middle Eastern governments. By producing this fuel on US soil, new jobs will be created, thus helping stimulate our economy. The farm industry will see tremendous growth as biodiesel will be using products grown on farms across our nation. Biodiesel is nontoxic and will be better for our already deteriorating air quality.

Studies have shown that the emissions produced by cars using biodiesel are almost nonexistent. Unlike petroleum, our daily driving will not be polluting the air we breathe or contributing to the greenhouse effect. Biodiesel is considered a high octane fuel. This means that it will help car engines work more efficiently and thus provide the owner with a higher engine performance.

A car’s engine will not be as loud and will last longer than if using petroleum based fuel. Currently, producing biodiesel is very expensive, but as the process is perfected and the idea becomes more popular with the public, prices should be lower. With the many benefits biodiesel offers to the car owners, the country and to our planet, biodiesel is certainly a very viable source of fuel for the future.

Visit our website http://makebiodiesel.net to download a comprehensive guide on how to make biodiesel at home.

Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adi_Suandharu

Cellulosic Biofuel Issues

Future Of Biofuels , , , , 0 Comment

There are many different types of fuel available for use by consumers for transportation purposes. Some of these fuels are sourced from naturally occurring deposits below the earth’s surface. Crude oil, a form of fossil fuel, is one of the most common types of substances extracted from deposits deep below the earth’s surface. Crude oil is processed into a useable substance, either gasoline or diesel fuel, that can be used in automobiles, trucks, locomotives, ships and generators. Although fossil fuels are the most common fuel sources, they are also some of the least efficient and produce some of the highest levels of carbon emissions of any fuel. Carbon emissions can be harmful to environmental processes, which is undesirable and there is a finite natural source which may be depleted very rapidly at the present rate of consumption.

There have been technological advancements that allow the use of non-fossil based materials that can be converted into useable products that can, in part, replace fossil fuels. One of the materials that have used to produce biofuels is corn. Corn is a reasonably good alternative fuel source. However, there are some downfalls of corn as a feedstock; it needs to be replanted in order to have a crop each growing cycle. While corn is a good alternative to fossil fuel, some argue, there are even better alternatives know as cellulosic biofuels.

Biofuels are fuels produced from organic materials that are grown rather than drilled for in deposits found in the earth. Cellulosic biofuel is fuel that is produced from organic sources but not from corn or other high sugar content feedstock. It is actually produced by using feedstock that is alternative to corn feedstock. Wood chips are just one example of an alternative feedstock source. Another example is algae; algae are very abundant and are very easily renewable as a feedstock choice.

Cellulosic biofuel is fast becoming a viable option to traditional fossil fuel based products. The abundance of material is changing the industry very rapidly. What was once a fringe idea and a very inefficient model has become the new challenge and goal of fuel producers. By utilizing organic feedstock, that in some cases is waste product from other manufacturing processes like saw dust or wood chips, the producers of petroleum and petroleum based products will slowly change the landscape of transportation fuels. Cellulosic biofuels are the future of the petroleum industry.

From clean energy to green technology, Alexander Sutton is involved with a number of green endeavors and wishes to spread awareness about environmentally friendly issues. For more information, please visit Cellulosic Biofuel.