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subota, 23. lipnja 2012.
srijeda, 20. lipnja 2012.
Way to Create Biofuels
Way to Create Biofuels
Is there a new path to biofuels hiding in a handful of dirt?
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) biologist Steve
Singer leads a group that wants to find out. They’re exploring whether a
common soil bacterium can be engineered to produce liquid
transportation fuels much more efficiently than the ways in which
advanced biofuels are made today.
The scientists are working with a bacterium called Ralstonia eutropha. It naturally uses hydrogen as an energy source to convert CO2 into various organic compounds.
The group hopes to capitalize on the bacteria’s capabilities and tweak it to produce advanced biofuels that are drop-in replacements for diesel and jet fuel. The process would be powered only by hydrogen and electricity from renewable sources such as solar or wind.
The goal is a biofuel—or electrofuel, as this new approach is called—that doesn’t require photosynthesis.
Why is this important? Most methods used to produce advanced biofuels, such as from biomass and algae, rely on photosynthesis. But it turns out that photosynthesis isn’t very efficient when it comes to making biofuel. Energy is lost as photons from the sun are converted to stored chemical energy in a plant, which is then converted to a fuel.
“We’re after a more direct way,” says Singer, who holds appointments with Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division and with the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a multi-institutional partnership led by Berkeley Lab.
“We want to bypass photosynthesis by using a microbe that uses hydrogen and electricity to convert CO2 into a fuel,” he adds.
Widespread use of electrofuels would also reduce demands for land, water, and fertilizer that are traditionally required to produce biofuels.
Berkeley Lab’s $3.4 million electrofuel project was funded in 2010 by DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program, which focuses on “high risk, high payoff concepts—technologies promising genuine transformation in the ways we generate, store and utilize energy.”
That pretty much describes electrofuels. ARPA-E estimates the technology has the potential to be ten times more efficient than current biofuel production methods. But electrofuels are currently confined to lab-scale tests. A lot of obstacles must be overcome before you’ll see it at the pump.
Fortunately, research is underway. The Berkeley Lab project is one of thirteen electrofuel projects sponsored by ARPA-E. And earlier this year, ARPA-E issued a request for information focused on the commercialization of the technology.
Singer’s group includes scientists from Virginia-based Logos Technologies and the University of California at Berkeley. The project’s co-principal investigators are Harry Beller, Swapnil Chhabra, and Nathan Hillson, who are also with Berkeley Lab and JBEI; Chris Chang, a UC Berkeley chemist and a faculty scientist with Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division; and Dan MacEachran of Logos Technologies.
The scientists chose to work with R. eutropha because the bacterium is well understood and it’s already used industrially to make bioplastics.
They’re creating engineered strains of the bacterium at JBEI, all aimed at improving its ability to produce hydrocarbons. This work involves re-routing metabolic pathways in the bacteria. It also involves adding pathways from other microorganisms, such as a pathway engineered in Escherichia coli to produce medium-chain methyl ketones, which are naturally occurring compounds that have cetane numbers similar to those of typical diesel fuel.
The group is also pursuing two parallel paths to further boost production.
In the first approach, Logos Technologies is developing a two-liter bioelectrochemical reactor, which is a conventional fermentation vessel fitted with electrodes. The vessel starts with a mixture of bacteria, CO2, and water. Electricity splits the water into oxygen and hydrogen. The bacteria then use energy from the hydrogen to wrest carbon from CO2 and convert it to hydrocarbons, which migrate to the water’s surface. The scientists hope to skim the first batch of biofuel from the bioreactor in about one year.
In the second approach, the scientists want to transform the bacteria into self-reliant, biofuel-making machines. With help from Chris Chang, they’re developing ways to tether electrocatalysts to the bacteria’s surface. These catalysts use electricity to generate hydrogen in the presence of water.
The idea is to give the bacteria the ability to produce much of their own energy source. If the approach works, the only ingredients the bacteria will need to produce biofuel would be CO2, electricity, and water.
The scientists are now developing ways to attach these catalysts to electrodes and to the surface of the bacteria.
“We’re at the proof-of-principle stage in many ways with this research, but the concept has a lot of potential, so we’re eager to see where we can take this,” says Singer.
The scientists are working with a bacterium called Ralstonia eutropha. It naturally uses hydrogen as an energy source to convert CO2 into various organic compounds.
The group hopes to capitalize on the bacteria’s capabilities and tweak it to produce advanced biofuels that are drop-in replacements for diesel and jet fuel. The process would be powered only by hydrogen and electricity from renewable sources such as solar or wind.
The goal is a biofuel—or electrofuel, as this new approach is called—that doesn’t require photosynthesis.
Why is this important? Most methods used to produce advanced biofuels, such as from biomass and algae, rely on photosynthesis. But it turns out that photosynthesis isn’t very efficient when it comes to making biofuel. Energy is lost as photons from the sun are converted to stored chemical energy in a plant, which is then converted to a fuel.
“We’re after a more direct way,” says Singer, who holds appointments with Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division and with the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a multi-institutional partnership led by Berkeley Lab.
“We want to bypass photosynthesis by using a microbe that uses hydrogen and electricity to convert CO2 into a fuel,” he adds.
Widespread use of electrofuels would also reduce demands for land, water, and fertilizer that are traditionally required to produce biofuels.
Berkeley Lab’s $3.4 million electrofuel project was funded in 2010 by DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program, which focuses on “high risk, high payoff concepts—technologies promising genuine transformation in the ways we generate, store and utilize energy.”
That pretty much describes electrofuels. ARPA-E estimates the technology has the potential to be ten times more efficient than current biofuel production methods. But electrofuels are currently confined to lab-scale tests. A lot of obstacles must be overcome before you’ll see it at the pump.
Fortunately, research is underway. The Berkeley Lab project is one of thirteen electrofuel projects sponsored by ARPA-E. And earlier this year, ARPA-E issued a request for information focused on the commercialization of the technology.
Singer’s group includes scientists from Virginia-based Logos Technologies and the University of California at Berkeley. The project’s co-principal investigators are Harry Beller, Swapnil Chhabra, and Nathan Hillson, who are also with Berkeley Lab and JBEI; Chris Chang, a UC Berkeley chemist and a faculty scientist with Berkeley Lab’s Chemical Sciences Division; and Dan MacEachran of Logos Technologies.
The scientists chose to work with R. eutropha because the bacterium is well understood and it’s already used industrially to make bioplastics.
They’re creating engineered strains of the bacterium at JBEI, all aimed at improving its ability to produce hydrocarbons. This work involves re-routing metabolic pathways in the bacteria. It also involves adding pathways from other microorganisms, such as a pathway engineered in Escherichia coli to produce medium-chain methyl ketones, which are naturally occurring compounds that have cetane numbers similar to those of typical diesel fuel.
The group is also pursuing two parallel paths to further boost production.
In the first approach, Logos Technologies is developing a two-liter bioelectrochemical reactor, which is a conventional fermentation vessel fitted with electrodes. The vessel starts with a mixture of bacteria, CO2, and water. Electricity splits the water into oxygen and hydrogen. The bacteria then use energy from the hydrogen to wrest carbon from CO2 and convert it to hydrocarbons, which migrate to the water’s surface. The scientists hope to skim the first batch of biofuel from the bioreactor in about one year.
In the second approach, the scientists want to transform the bacteria into self-reliant, biofuel-making machines. With help from Chris Chang, they’re developing ways to tether electrocatalysts to the bacteria’s surface. These catalysts use electricity to generate hydrogen in the presence of water.
The idea is to give the bacteria the ability to produce much of their own energy source. If the approach works, the only ingredients the bacteria will need to produce biofuel would be CO2, electricity, and water.
The scientists are now developing ways to attach these catalysts to electrodes and to the surface of the bacteria.
“We’re at the proof-of-principle stage in many ways with this research, but the concept has a lot of potential, so we’re eager to see where we can take this,” says Singer.
CCRES
special thanks to
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
petak, 18. svibnja 2012.
Nor Cal Biodiesel
CCRES promotes Nor Cal Biodiesel
Nor Cal Biodiesel currently offer two models to choose from: the BioPro190 and the larger BioPro380.
BioPro190
BioPro190 General Information and Specifications
Items You Will Need To Get Started:
|
BioPro380
BioPro380 General Information and Specifications
Items You Will Need To Get Started:
|
Since it's introduction, the BioPro line of products have steadily found
their way into the hands of many an independent souls.
Click on the
links below to read about
CONTACT Nor Cal Biodiesel
Please feel free to contact Nor Cal Biodiesel for additional information regarding our products or services.
Nor Cal Biodiesel also welcome any comments or suggestions regarding products, web site and overall experience
regarding
your initial interaction with Nor Cal Biodiesel.
General Inquiries and Sales Information info@norcalbio.com
Projects, Business Development or Specific Requests danny@norcalbio.com
Projects, Business Development or Specific Requests danny@norcalbio.com
Nor Cal Biodiese web site : http://norcalbio.com/index.html
For any additional information, please contact
Danny Lesa, telephone 707-766-9782
(CCRES)
petak, 11. svibnja 2012.
The Pentagon, the largest U.S. consumer of fuel goes green
Last month U.S. Army Energy Initiatives Task Force (AEITF) issued a draft request for proposals (Draft RFP) renewable energy contracts.
What’s on offer? Over the next decade, an impressive $7 billion. During the AEITF’s pre-solicitation phase, the Draft RFP is designed to gather information from potential bidders to assist the AEITF to develop a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) that it intends to issue later this year.
The United States Armed Forces, which currently fuels 77 percent of its machinery with petroleum-based fuel, has announced an aggressive goal, to be petroleum free by 2040. The Air Force intends to use biofuels for 50 percent of its domestic aviation needs by 2016.
A 2011 Pew Charitable Trusts report, "From Barracks to the Battlefield: Clean Energy Innovation and America's Armed Forces" reported that Department of Defense clean energy investments increased 300 percent between 2006 and 2009 - from $400 million to $1.2 billion - and are projected at $10 billion annually by 2030, adding that that by 2015, the Pentagon will be spending $2.25 billion each year to harness clean energy technologies for air, land and sea vehicles.
Driving the Pentagon’s green drive is Executive Order 13423, which mandates that the Department of Defense achieve a 30 percent reduction in non-tactical fleet fossil fuel use by 2020.
A second key piece of legislation driving the Pentagon’s mandate is the Renewable Fuel Standard, which Congress enacted in 2005 as part of the Energy Policy Act, amending it in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act. The amended standard mandated that by 2022 the consumption volume of the renewable fuels should consist of: 15 billion gallons of conventional biofuels, mainly corn-grain ethanol; 1 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel fuel; 4 billion gallons of advanced renewable biofuels, other than ethanol derived from cornstarch, that achieve a life-cycle greenhouse gas threshold of at least 50 percent; and 16 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuels produced from wood, grasses, or non-edible plant parts, such as corn stalks and wheat straw.
The draft AEITF RFP marks the beginning of the AEITF's plan to develop a large, coordinated procurement process for renewables. The AEITF's new program was developed in response to a National Defense Authorization Act that requires Department of Defense facilities to derive at least 25 percent of the electricity they consume from renewable energy by 2025, and a Department of Defense "Net Zero Energy" initiative, which challenges DOD installations to produce more energy than they consume, with emphasis on the use of renewable energy and alternative fuels.
So, what is holding back the production of commercially viable amounts of biofuels? Key barriers to achieving the renewable fuel mandate are the high cost of producing biofuels compared with petroleum-based fuels uncertainties in future biofuel markets, a lack of subsidies and crop insurance, along with a shortage of significant investment.
These factors have combined to produce a “perfect storm” up to now for biofuel producers, resulting in “designer fuels” of high cost for Pentagon testing.
To give but one example.
In October 2010 the Navy purchased 20,055 gallons of algae biofuel at an eye-watering cost of $424/gallon. Nevertheless, the contract was one of the biggest U.S. purchases of a non-corn ethanol biofuel up to that time. A year later, the Navy reportedly spent $12 million for 450,000 gallons of biofuel. The bad news was that the biofuel’s cost worked out to around $26.67 per gallon, roughly six times the current cost of traditional gas.
The good news? In a single year, the cost per gallon of biofuel plummeted by a factor of 15.9.
Furthermore, $7 billion in funding is likely to prove a significant game changer in the field.
So, where does this leave the investor? No single biofuel source, from jatropha, algae or camelina has yet to emerge as the clear winner, though the last seems most likely to emerge as the frontrunner. Accordingly, investors must do their homework and seek out potential winners.
For those wishing to broaden their portfolios, two websites will prove of immense value.
The first is www.usa.gov, the federal government’s website for the U.S. government, where one can come to grips with federal legislation and Pentagon initiatives.
The second is Jim Lane’s http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/, the self-proclaimed “world’s most widely read biofuels daily.” While the site has an element of tub-thumping boosterism, it nevertheless remains an immensely valuable source of information about the biofuel market and the major players.
It is important to remember how different the biofuels picture is now from even a year ago. The Pentagon, the largest U.S. consumer of fuel, is now under pressure to meet the various federal mandates, and careers and promotions hang in the balance.
CCRES special thanks to
John C.K. Daly ,
U.S.-Central Asia Biofuels Ltd
ponedjeljak, 7. svibnja 2012.
CCRES - BIODIESEL
CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
(CCRES)
Biodiesel
The Popular
Biofuel
The fuels obtained from biomass materials, like the waste
generated by plants, animals and humans beings, are called as the biofuels. The biofuels are well
known alternative fuels used for the production of heat and electricity and also driving the
vehicles. The biomass is considered to be a type of renewable sources of energy since it is available
in unlimited quantity and will continue to do so for unlimited period of time. One of the most
popular types of biofuels is biodiesel.
Biodiesel is obtained from the fresh or used vegetable oil and
animal fats by the process called transesterification. Efforts are being made to obtain biodiesel
from waste grease and oils. The modern methods have been discovered to obtain biodiesel from algae
as well.
Early
Diesel Engine and Biodiesel
Rudolph Diesel had invented diesel engine in the period dating
back to 1890. Though the present diesel engine is being run entirely on petroleum diesel
fuel, in the days of invention itself Rudolph had envisioned that his engine could be powered by
vegetable oil and could be used in the remote areas of farmlands where petroleum diesel is not
available, but where the vegetable oil can be obtained easily from the plants. This way the farmers
would be able to run the vehicles used by them for farming by using the vegetable oil. Rudolph had
carried out extensive research to run his engine on vegetable oil.
In fact biodiesel was one of the earliest fuels used for running
the engines of the automobiles.
After Rudolph's death in 1913, the gasoline including diesel
became much cheaper so the design of Rudolph's engine was modified so that it can run on petroleum
diesel. It is indeed interesting to know that after almost 100 years, the engine developed by
Rudolph is now being run on the same fuel i.e. biodiesel made from vegetable oil, as per its
original vision.
Biodiesel
used for Running Vehicles
As mentioned earlier, the original diesel engine was designed to
run on biodiesel or vegetable oil. For all the vehicles manufactured after the year 1993
biodiesel can be used as the fuel in all diesel engines without making any changes in the fuel
injection system. When one uses the biodiesel there may be very little or no change in the performance
of the engine.
The properties of biodiesel are very similar to traditional diesel
obtained from the crude oil. While the combustion of traditional diesel produces lots of air
pollution and toxic gases, the burning of biodiesel is clean and it does not cause any
environmental pollution.
Biodiesel can be used as the fuel for automobiles in the pure form
or it can be mixed with petroleum diesel in various proportions to form the blends. The
two most commonly used blends of biodiesel are B20 and B100. B20 is the blend of 20% of
biodiesel and remaining percentage of petroleum diesel and is the most widely used blend in US. It also
meets all the regulations under the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) documented in 1992. Most of the
other fuel blends containing lesser than 20% of biodiesel can also used for the running the
vehicles. B100 is the pure form of biodiesel and it can be used in the diesel engines only after
making certain changes in the hosesand gaskets of the engine.
Controversies
Related to Biodiesel
Now that biodiesel is being blended with petroleum diesel and is
being used as the fuel, its demand is fast increasing. A number of farmers are tempted to grow
the crops that would yield biodiesel at the cost of the food crops. Instead of using the
fertilizers, pesticides and energy for the food crops, farmers are using them for the biodiesel crops.
This leads to not only the misuse of the limited resources but also shortage of the food crops.
In some parts of the world large areas of forests have been cut
down to grow sugarcane for ethanol and soybeans and palm-oil tress for making biodiesel. US
government is making efforts to make sure the farming for biomass materials does not competes with
the farming of food crops and that the farming of biomass would require lesser fertilizers
and pesticides. A number of other sources for biodiesel are also being explored like used oils and
greases and algae.
Benefits
of Biodiesel
Here are some of the benefits of using biodiesel as a fuel:
1) Biodiesel can be easily blended with petroleum diesel and the
mixture can be readily used for running the vehicles without carrying out any changes in the
engine.
2) Though the properties of biodiesel are same as the petroleum
diesel, the combustion of biodiesel produces no greenhouse and other gases that would harm
the environment.
As the proportion of biodiesel increases in the petroleum diesel blend,
its tendency to generate pollution reduces.
3) Biodiesel is made from plant oil and vegetable fats, which are
biodegradable, so they can be easily disposed of. When biodiesel is leaked or split it does not
harm the environment.
4) The country manufacturing and using biodiesel is less dependent
on other countries for their fuel requirements. Biodiesel has the potential to make countries
self-reliant for their future fuel requirements. Further, since biodiesel is obtained from the
renewable source of energy, it could be considered an important fuel for future planning.
CCRES
special thanks to
Escapeartist, Inc
CROATIAN CENTER of RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
(CCRES)
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