|
"Biofuels And Their Efficiency"Biofuels And Their Efficiency We cannot afford to overlook the pernicious effects of global warming anymore, claiming there is not enough evidence to support the hypothesis. Research results the world over clearly corroborate the fact that unless we start cleaning up the mess immediately, we are in for some irreversible ecological damages in less than a century. The need of switching over to alternative energy resources had never been more cogent. And this is where biofuels step in. Basically extracted from agricultural produce, bio fuels are the best green energy resource that we know of next to solar energy. Biofuels are already being touted as the default option to petroleum due to its zero polluting content. Also known as 'carbon neutral' biofuels release exactly the same quantity of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which it assimilates from it during its growth. No doubt, why biofuels are a rage with global investors. The scarcity of energy supplies is a direct fall out of indiscriminate fossil fuel exploitation. Ecologists claim that, unless we preserve the existing stock of fossil fuel to the current level, it will adversely impact our societal progress. Biofuels therefore are more of a compulsion in the present context. Distilled from organic matters, it's one of the best ways of generating 'green' energy. However, its most efficient denomination ethanol, developed from vegetables, corn oil or sugar cane, is not fit to meet all our energy requirements. Irony is that although global energy distributors have pegged the efficacy of ethanol to an ambitious 10 percent of world power supplies ahead of 2025, and an incredible 30 percent by 2050, the current bound remains stagnant at a lowly 2 percent. The trio of Bioalcohols, biodiesels and biogas constitutes the first generation of biofuels. The first one of these is derived by the anaerobic breakdown, commonly known as souring, of starch rich plants; the next one is obtained from overheated vegetable oil while the last one is created from the zymlosis of organic matter. The only rider with first generation bio fuels is that they are extracted out of edible crops. Their successors the second generation ones employ inedible harvest and discarded plant stalks. This too comes with the shortcoming that the cellulosic bio fuel it produces cannot be replicated on a bigger magnitude. Algae biofuel is the third in line. And this is our biggest hope. Consuming marginal amounts of energy while yielding considerable output, there is little doubt as to why algae is such a hit with energy scientists around the world. Better methods of essential oil extraction from algae are constantly being probed by every quarter of global researchers. There is of course a new strain of bio fuel emerging on the horizon. It is labeled as the fourth generation one. This type of biofuel is extracted from microorganisms. A groundbreaking innovation, this can be our answer to our entire energy crunch. Until the time that we can come up with a technology that safely unlocks the potential of hydrogen as the energy reservoir, we have to depend on alternative energy resources like biofuels. Unless we do that, the march of civilization can come to an abrupt halt due to the looming power crisis. Next Article: Alternative Energy Sources -
|
Menu 
