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The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) states that energy security is the number one driving force behind the US biofuels programme, [114] and a White House "Energy Security for the 21st Century" paper makes it clear that energy security is a major reason for promoting biodiesel. [115]
Biofuels include bioethanol, an alcohol made by fermentation—often used as a gasoline additive, and biodiesel, which is usually used as a diesel additive. Specific energy is energy per unit mass, which is used to describe the chemical energy content of a fuel, expressed in SI units as joule per kilogram (J/kg) or equivalent units. [1]
The energy content in the global production of bioethanol and biodiesel is 2.2 and 1.8 EJ per year, respectively. [ 17 ] Bioethanol is an alcohol made by fermentation , mostly from carbohydrates produced in sugar or starch crops such as maize , sugarcane , or sweet sorghum .
Bioenergy is a type of renewable energy that is derived from plants and animal waste. [1] The biomass that is used as input materials consists of recently living (but now dead) organisms, mainly plants. [2] Thus, fossil fuels are not regarded as biomass under this definition.
Renewable fuels are fuels produced from renewable resources. Examples include: biofuels (e.g. Vegetable oil used as fuel, ethanol, methanol from clean energy and carbon dioxide [1] or biomass, and biodiesel), Hydrogen fuel (when produced with renewable processes), and fully synthetic fuel (also known as electrofuel) produced from ambient carbon dioxide and water.
The availability of biodiesel around the World is increasing. It is estimated that by 2010 the market for biodiesel will be 7.5 billion litres (2 billion USgallons) in the U.S and 9.5 billion litres (2.5 billion USgallons) in Europe. [16] Biodiesel currently has 3% of the diesel market in Germany and is the number 1 alternative fuel. [17]
Commonly known as simply 'Pongamia', this tree is currently being commercialised in Australia by Pacific Renewable Energy, for use as a Diesel replacement for running in modified Diesel engines or for conversion to Biodiesel using 1st or 2nd Generation Biodiesel techniques, for running in unmodified Diesel engines. [60]
Biodiesel production is the process of producing the biofuel, biodiesel, through the chemical reactions of transesterification and esterification. [1] This process renders a product (chemistry) and by-products. The fats and oils react with short-chain alcohols (typically methanol or ethanol). The alcohols used should be of low molecular weight.