Biofuel is a fuel derived directly from living matter. Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of the diesel engine, originally designed it to run on vegetable oil. In fact, one of his early demonstrations, at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1897, had a diesel engine running on peanut oil. Biofuels are used as a remedy to use products we grow with the goal to create our net impact on the environment negligible if not zero. For instance, power generation demonstrates that a large quantity of energy goes into producing electricity. In 2008, the world produced about 20,261 TWh of electricity. This is problematic because a large majority of their energy is made from fossil fuels such as coal, a natural gas which contributes to the co2 emissions and the global warming. Biofuel is a great alternative because “the net impact is lower than if the waste were allowed to decompose on its own. This is because natural decomposition in oxygen-rich environments produces nitrogen dioxide, with is over 300 times more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, as well as methane, which is over 20 times more potent. “ Nonetheless, there are many kinds of biofuels, like ethanol and methanol among others. Ethanol is made by fermenting the sugars from plants such as corn or sugarcane, ethanol contains oxygen that helps a car’s engine burn fuel more efficiently, reducing air pollution. Methanol is used as an alternative biofuel for internal combustion and other engines, either in combination with gasoline or independently. With that being said, currently, biofuels aren’t able to meet our all needs because crop growth isn’t able to meet our demands for energy consumption. Currently there is research around spreading up the production of crops specifically for their energy needs. We are searching for more plans that offer a greater net impact and produce less waste.
History of Biofuels
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