As part of a more in-depth look at Biofuels, in today’s article I will explain what Ethanol is and I will describe the different types of Ethanol that are currently in production. I will also provide links to websites for further reading.  The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) was my main source of information for gathering facts regarding the legality of current ethanol use and the availability of ethanol-based fuels in the U.S. In the places that I have used their information, I will cite the pages from their website.

What is Ethanol?

Ethanol is a fuel created from an alcohol formed by fermenting sugars or starches found in various plant materials. For you science types, here is the chemical formula: CH3-CH2-OH. Ethanol has been labeled a renewable fuel, which means that the materials that have been used to create it can be regrown at a relatively quick rate (as compared to fossil fuels).

There is now also a way to produce ethanol from parts of plants such as the stalks and leaves.  This is called “cellulosic ethanol”.  One benifit is that is would not be using parts of crops that could be used as a food source, however, it is much more difficult to extract sugars and starches from these “waste” plant parts.

Some Types of Ethanol:

Note on Labeling:  The percentage of ethanol used in a blend is denoted by the number following the E, so E20 would be 20% ethanol and 80% gasoline.

High level blends are anything from E85 and up.

E100: This is 100% pure ethanol.  To my knowledge, I do not believe that E100 is really available in the United States.  It is not really discussed on the Alternative Fuels page on the DOE Website.  I know that it does not work well in colder temperatures and that cars do require modifications in order to process it correctly.

E85: This fuel is available in the United States as the 15% gasoline allows the fuel to operate in colder climates.  You need to have a flexible fuel vehicle in order to use it, however.  Here is the website at the U.S. Dept. of Energy that you can use to find E85 Filling Stations Near You.  Simply click on your state.

Intermediate Level Blends include everything from E10 to E85

E15 & E20: These fuels are available but also require a fuel flexible car, however, this may change at some point.  This is directly from the intermediate blend page of the DOE website:

“However, intermediate ethanol blends cannot yet be used legally in standard (non-flexible fuel) vehicles. For this to happen, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must approve a waiver to the Clean Air Act, classifying the blends as “substantially similar” to gasoline. Research on intermediate blends is underway, which could lead to a waiver application to the EPA.”

Here is the link to their page of RESEARCH on these intermediate blends.

Low-Level Blends include any mixture from E10 on down

E10: As mentioned above, in order for a gasoline containing ethanol to be used in a car that is not a flexible fuel vehicle, the EPA mandates that it be “substantially similar” to gasoline.  E10 and below fall into this category.  According to the DOE page on low-level blends, “nearly half of U.S. gasoline now contains up to 10% ethanol (E10) to boost octane or meet air quality requirements”.

For more information on what Ethanol is and how it is used, please visit the following websites:

Driving Ethanol

DOE: Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy: Ethanol

Ethanol Facts.com

EPA – this is their main website.  If you go to their search box at type in “Ethanol” you will find many official documents regarding ethanol use and production

I’ve tried to find websites that are impartial, but I have also included websites partial to ethanol so that you can see many different opinions.  There is a major debate over the energy used to produce ethanol, the land use, and the efficiency (it takes more ethanol to produce the same amount of energy as gasoline).  But that is a topic for another day.  Hopefully this article and the attached websites will help you begin to understand what ethanol is and how it is currently being used.

This is the fourth article in the What Is…Biofuel series.  To read previous articles see What is Biofuel?, First Generation Biofuels, and Second Generation Biofuels.

Whew!  We made it!  The last classification of biofuels (as far as this author is currently concerned) is Third Generation Biofuels.  These alternative fuels are derived from algae.    The oil extracted from algae is used to create variants of fuels discussed in the previous articles: biodiesel, biobutanol, biogasoline, and methane.

There are several cool things about creating fuel from algal sources, including:

1. Algae is completely biodegradable, so if there was an algal spill, we wouldn’t have the same mess that we have when an oil tanker goes kaput.
2. Algae can be produced using ocean water or fresh water.
3. Also, the algal production sites can be placed on land that is unsuitable for farming, and so would not displace any food crops.

Current disadvantages include:

1. Right now it is too expensive to produce on a large scale, so is not readily available to consumers.
2. According to the United States Department of Energy, it would take 15,000 square miles of land in order for algal fuel to replace all petroleum fuel – however – according to the Environmental Protection Agency, that is only 1/7 of the land currently used to produce corn and seeing as how we don’t need farmable land to produce this stuff ….surely we can find some untenable land somewhere in this country!

As I said before, this type of fuel is not really available yet, but there are plenty of companies working hard to change that!  Check out the folks at Solix Biofuels.

That’s it for research!  I am all studied out.  My next step will be to check out biofuel options here in Austin and see if any of them will work in my little car.  Stay tuned!

<–Previous Article: Second Generation Biofuels

This is the third article in the What Is…Biofuel series. These articles detail what biofuels are, their components, and how they are used. For previous articles, see What is Biofuel and First Generation Biofuels.

Second Generation Biofuels seek to solve problems that are association with First Generation Biofuels. Those problems are:

1. Threatening the food supply
2. Limited emissions savings
3. Are too expensive compared to other fuel

One of the goals of Second Generation Biofuels is to use the parts of the foodcrops that would generally be considered inedible, such as stems and leaves. For you want to be fancy you cant start using the word “Lingoncellulose” – this means the woody part of plants. If this method is perfected, it will allow us to use current crop materials without threatening anyone’s food supply or clearing new land.

The problem however, is that second generation biofuels are not commercially available as of yet. At least not widely. Many different types are in production and I will include some links and explanations:

BIOHYDROGEN – Through a fermenetaion process, hydrogen gas can be created from biomass (stuff that was recently alive) and then used to power fuel cells.

Read more at Biohydrogen

2,5-dimethylfuran molecule

DMF – DMF stands for 2, 5-dimethylfuran. There is something else called dimethylformamide which is also abbreviated DMF, but which is bad! Don’t get them confused. 2, 5-Dimethylfuran is formed through the thermal degredation of sugars – that means breaking down sugars with heat. It has an energy density – how much punch per drop – that makes it comprable to gasoline and it is easily procured.

Read more at Reference.com

BioDME -Straight from the BioDME website: “The overall project objective is to demonstrate production of environmentally optimised synthetic biofuel from lignocellulosic biomass at industrial scale. The final output of this demonstration is dimethylether (DME) produced from black liquor through the production of clean synthesis gas and a final fuel synthesis step. In order to check technical standards, commercial possibilities and engine compatibilities the bio-DME will be tested in a fleet consisting of 14 Volvo trucks.”

Read more at BioDME

BIOMETHANOL – Biomethanol can be produced from Syngas (see the First Generation Biofuels article). It can be used as a substitute in spark ignition engines and can be blended 10 – 20% with petrol without any modifications to the vehicle.

Read more at Refuel – Biomethanol

FISCHER-TROPSCH FUELS – Fischer-Tropsch fuels are derived from the Fischer-Tropsch process (named after – you guess it – two dudes named Fischer and Tropsch). These guys developed a reaction in which synthesis gas is converted into hydrocarbons. The purpose of this was to create a synthetic petroleum substitute. And the cherry on top is that these guys did it in 1923! Hmmm.

Read more at the Fischer-Tropsch Archive

WOOD DIESEL – This really caught my attention! This dude at the University of Georgia, K.C. Das has helped to create something called a biorefinery. One of the products is char, which they can put back into the soil as fertilizer. This puts carbon back into the soil, which is the opposite of emitting CO2. In other words – reverse greenhouse effect people! I don’t know how difficult the process is to create this fuel, but it would give us negative carbon emissions. Check it out: Georgia Magazine: Future Fuel

For some MUCH more detailed information, please reference the following articles:

Renewable Energy World

International Energy Agency (IEA)

<– Previous Article: First Generation Biofuels

Next Article: Third Generation Biofuels –>

This article is part of a continuing series explaining what biofuels are, what biofuels are made from, and their pros and cons. For the previous article in this series see: What is Biofuel?
First Generation Biofuels are any fuels made from animal fats, starch, sugar, or vegetable oil. All of these come from renewable sources, although there is criticism that growing the products for these forms of biofuels divert farmland that could be used to grow food crops. There are several different categories of first generation biofuels including:

1. Biodiesel
2. Vegetable Oil
3. Biogas
4. Syngas
5. Bioalcohols

BIODIESEL

Biodiesel has a composition similar to fossil/mineral diesel except that components in biodiesel include animal fats and oils from soy, mustard, flax, and sunflower seeds just to name a few. The oil or animal fat is reacted with an alcohol through a process called transesterification to create the fuel.

Currently, biodiesel can be used in many diesel engines when it is mixed with some mineral diesel. According to biofuel.org.uk, many manufacturers of the diesel engine are making sure that their engines work well with biodiesel. The website also states that biodiesel is the most common type of biofuel used in European countries. Biofuel.org.uk also has a list of cars that work with biodiesel and information on engine warrantees that cover using biodiesel.

PROS:

• In general, biodiesel is cleaner-burning than conventional diesel. You can read a report on emissions done by the EPA which has a detailed comparison chart.
• Biodiesel is biodegradable
• Biodiesel comes from a renewable source

CONS:

• Increase in nitrous oxide in biodiesel emissions (which contributes to smog) – this increase is 10% according to the study done by the EPA
• Biodiesel acts like a solvent. As it runs through an engine, it cleans out deposits which can then create clogs, so if you switch to biofuel, you should clean out your filters often.

Of course, this is just a brief overview. For more comprehensive information on Biodisel, check out the following website: National Biodiesel Board

VEGETABLE OIL

Now don’t go into your kitchen and pour your bottle of vegetable oil into your gas tank! The type of vegetable oil used to create biofuels is of lower quality than what we use in cooking and baking. Vegetable oil is most often used in the production of biofuels, but there are cases where straight vegetable oil is being used as a fuel. I have read that some people have experimented with pouring vegetable oil straight into their tanks but there are companies (Elsbett and Wolf) that offer conversion kits.

PROS:

• Restaurants throw out a ton of cooking oil every year that could be used as fuel. I do know that one of Austin’s local burger joints, TerraBurger, donates their waste vegetable oil to a biofuel facility.
• Vegetable Oil burns similar to biodiesel, so the emissions are similar – see the link to the EPA’s report above in the Biodeisel section.

CONS:

• It would take a lot of farmland to grow enough crops for vegetable oil to be a competitive option.

Read more at Bionomic Fuel

BIOGAS

Biogas is created when organic matter breaks down anaerobically (that means without any oxygen). It can be produced from gunk like manure, sewage, and municpal waste. Some biogas, like landfill gas, contains something called “volatile organic compounds” and can be bad for the environment. The Clean Air Act contains legislation directed at landfill gas and the treatment of non-methane organic compounds (NMOCs).

However some countries, like India, have created ‘micro plants’ that are filled with cow dung and used to power houses. These are called Gober gas plants (the word ‘gober’ means cow dung) and you can read an article about them at Green Trust

PROS:

• Cost is cheaper than putting up and maintaining solar panels and wind turbines
• Is a renewable source – things will always have to poo!

CONS:

• Still releases CO2 and Nitrogen, so there is a little pollution
• Requires a lot of cleaning and bacteria management

Read more at PennState – Biogas

SYNGAS

Syngas is a mix of carbon dioxide and hydrogen. It is created when biomass (stuff from recently living organisms, i.e. manure) is combusted with a certain amount of oxygen. Syngas can be used to produce diesel and can also be converted into methane.

PROS:

• Because syngas comes from biomass, it is considered to be renewable.
• Burns cleaner than fossil fuels, so would reduce pollution.

CONS:

• There is often lower energy recovery efficiency than conventional combustion systems
• There is CO2 formed when syngas is burned

Read more at Biomass Magazine

BIOALCOHOLS

Bioalcohols are produced through the fermentation of starches and sugars. Ethanol is the most common, although there is also butanol and propanol. Just like some biodiesels can be used directly in a diesel engine without a conversion kit, some bioalcohols can be used directly in gasoline-powered engines.

PROS:

• Butanol is not as corrosive as Ethanol and can be transported in gas pipelines
• Again, bioalcohols come from a renewable energy source
• Bioacohols also have less harmful emissions than gasoline

CONS:

• It takes a larger volume of Ethanol to produce the same amount of energy as gasoline
• Ethanol can be corrosive to rubber parts like hoses

Read more at Bioalcohol Fuel Foundation

Whew! That’s quite a bit of information (and I still don’t know what I’m doing!). So, the research continues!

What is Biofuel? <–Previous Article

Next Article–> Second Generation Biofuels