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The production of biofuels can be very energy intensive, which, if generated from non-renewable sources, can heavily mitigate the benefits gained through biofuel use. A solution proposed to solve this issue is to supply biofuel production facilities with excess nuclear energy, which can supplement the power provided by fossil fuels. [112]
A biofuel is a fuel produced from recently living organisms. 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 ...
The methanol used in most biodiesel production processes is made using fossil fuel inputs. However, there are sources of renewable methanol made using carbon dioxide or biomass as feedstock, making their production processes free of fossil fuels. [75] A by-product of the transesterification process is the production of glycerol. For every 1 ...
Fossil fuels have solved two problems which could be separately solved in the future: the problem of a source of primary energy and of energy storage. Along with straight vegetable oil and biodiesel, some energy technologies that could play an important part in the future include:
[1] [2] Conversion of biomass to liquid fuels is preferred as an alternative to the extraction of fossil fuels because biomass removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as it grows through photosynthesis. When combusted, this carbon is re-released into the atmosphere, closing the carbon cycle and making biofuels carbon neutral under some ...
Biofuels are different from fossil fuels in regard to carbon emissions being short term, but are similar to fossil fuels in that biofuels contribute to air pollution. Raw biofuels burned to generate steam for heat and power, produces airborne carbon particulates, carbon monoxide and nitrous oxides. [19]
There are two main types of biofuels produced: Ethanol and Biodiesel. Biodiesel is a liquid fuel composed of vegetable oils and or animal fats. To create the gasoline itself, these subsequent liquids are combined with alcohol. Biodiesel is used to fuel compression ignition engines, otherwise known as diesel engines.
The following table shows the vegetable oil yields of common energy crops associated with biodiesel production. Included is growing zone data, relevant to farmers and agricultural scientists. This is unrelated to ethanol production, which relies on starch, sugar and cellulose content instead of oil yields.