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[no dialogue].
Well, we are going to get started here right now talking
about biofuel technology.
We are going to discuss the fuel, vehicles,
greenhouse gases, economics, and opponents
to using biofuel technology.
Each of my group members will introduce themselves.
My name is Ed Browne, and I'll start off here.
The little bit of history of biofuels and biofuel technology.
Biofuels have been around since the 1800s.
Henry Ford's Model-T was designed to run
on corn-based ethanol.
Political and economic pressures from the oil barons of the 1920s
and 1930s prevented the useful applications of ethanol
from taking hold in the United States, although it's been
a regional event for quite some time.
Farmers were using ethanol and biodiesel in their tractors
early in the 20th century.
During the oil embargos of the 1970s, interest increased again
in biofuels research.
During that time, there were long lines at the gas pumps.
Most of you weren't around then, but for those that were
and if you were driving, I'm sure you appreciated having
the opportunity to sit in line for hours while you waited
to get a tank full of gas.
Moving along into the 1980s, research was done using
waste cooking oil by a professor at the
Colorado State School of Mines.
He retrieved some waste cooking oil from a McDonald's
in Colorado to create replacements for diesel fuel.
He originally called his creation MacDiesel,
but it was eventually called biodiesel to avoid
legal entanglements with the clown.
McDonalds was willing to sue over just that name.
Even though, if they had had a McDonalds with a biodiesel
station, they would have made twice the money they make
on a Big Mac.
Use of biodiesel, B100, in a 1993 Dodge pickup in a test ran
for 90,000 miles with no major engine damage.
A later test using another pickup truck, I believe it was
a Chevrolet, ran for over 100,000 miles.
Ford wasn't involved in these tests.
As a result of world political developments in the Middle East
and the issues of availability of oil in the future,
the US and many other countries are proceeding with plans
to increase production of biofuels.
This includes bioethanol and other fuel sources
from materials such as wood chips, wood bark, saw grass,
and prairie grass, which was talked about earlier,
and switchgrass, which is a grass that is grown here
in the Midwest and other parts of the country.
It has a high heating potential and is an excellent source
of biomass for creating biodiesel and bioethanol.
New technologies such as harvesting switchgrass,
wood chips, and other biomass products are going to improve
the possibilities of using these feedstocks to create bioethanol
by 2025.
Okay, the fuels, what are biofuels?
Biofuels are energy resources produced from plant and other
biological matter--animal fats, cooking oils--that are renewable
and sustainable.
The biggest problem with using petroleum-based products
is that it is not a renewable resource.
It's running out.
The costs are going up drastically, and before long
there will be major conflicts just over oil, as we are seeing
now in the Middle East.
Current biofuels include ethanol and bioethanol, biodiesel,
recycled vegetable oils, and methanol gasoline blends.
There are others that are under development.
I am in the process of doing graduate studies on another
material called ethalacitate that we are hoping will reduce
greenhouse gas emissions in gasoline engines and possibly be
another blended fuel similar to what we are doing
with ethanol now.
Biofuels account for only 3% of the total US energy usage
compared to Brazil.
Brazil uses approximately 90% of its energy needs through
sugar cane processed biofuels.
Ryan.
My name is Ryan Devries, and I am going to talk to you
very briefly about the technology used in the biofuels
for vehicles, how it uses it, and so on and so forth.
One of the attributes of biofuels is its
lubrication properties.
It has very good lubrication which reduces the wear and tear
on the vehicle, the engine more or less, to give you a longer
life of the engine.
In comparison to petroleum, there isn't any sulfur additives
for the lubrication.
It is purely methanol that provides this lubrication,
so there's no sulfur additives which contribute
to the greenhouse gases and depletion of the ozone
and so on and so forth, a bunch of other
economical considerations.
One technology that is used to make this biofuel
is called transesterification.
Basically, this process starts with a tryglyceride
which is formerly known as vegetable oil.
In the process, it is combined with an alcohol agent
known as methanol.
During the transition process, the methanol replaces
the glycerin molecule which in turn makes methanol esters.
The final product is known as fatty acid methanol esters,
known to us as biodiesel.
One question is what kind of car, or can any car run off
of these types of fuels?
It depends.
With biodiesels, they are not as corrosive as your E85 or ethanol
based fuels, so a lot of your current biodiesel engines
can run off of biodiesels.
Your ethanol based fuels, like your E85 cannot because they are
more corrosive so they need special materials for your
gas line tanks, your injectors and so on and so forth.
So, that's just the brief overview of the technology
that's used and why certain fuels can be ran
in current cars.
Hi, I'm Prashanth.
I'm going to talk about greenhouse gases
and global warming.
What is greenhouse effect?
When the sun's radiation enter into the atmosphere,
some of them are reflected back to the atmosphere.
And some of them are reflected back from the surface
of the earth.
But most of them are absorbed by the earth, and the earth emits
the infrared radiations.
These infrared radiations escaped from the atmosphere,
and some of the infrared radiations are captured
by the atmosphere and the infrared radiations which
are captured by the atmosphere are done by greenhouse gases.
Some of the greenhouse gases which are here are natural.
Some of the greenhouse gases are naturally occurring
greenhouse gases.
They are water vapor, methane, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide,
and some human activities become a source for greenhouse gases
such as burning fossil fuels, deforestation, agricultural
activities, use of chlorophyll and carbons in refrigerators.
In the US, greenhouse gas emmissions come mostly
from energy use.
These are driven largely by the economic growth, fuel use
for electricity generation, and weather patterns affecting
heat and cooling needs.
Scientists estimate that the global temperature will increase
by 1.4 degrees to 5.8 degrees Celsius by the year 2100.
The effects of global temperature increase are
the sea level rises which causes flooding and the salt water
reaches inland which reduces the supply for freshwater.
Many poor people who depend on the land for subsistence living
and many endangered species would be come extinct
as rising temperatures changes the habitat.
Certain airborne diseases carried by animals and insects
such as malaria would become widespread.
To reduce the greenhouse emissions, many programs
have started.
One of the programs is Regional Greenhouse Gas Initative.
The next is continued by Satish.
Hi, I'm Satish, and I'm going to discuss about the economic
and social issues of using biofuels.
As we know, everything has good and also bad.
I would like to discuss some good things and also bad things.
The main advantage of using the biofuels is that the current
vehicles which are currently running on biofuels can easily
be modified.
It recycles the CO2 which is presently in the atmosphere.
That means that it does not add to the content of the CO2
which is present in the atmosphere.
Biofuel plants add jobs to the economies of the host countries.
Some biofuel costs have been reduced to be competitive
with the petroleum-based fuels.
When it comes to the negative impacts of using biofuels,
it increases chemical pollution and decreased biodiversity due
to alteration of habitat due to agriculture.
It also decreases the water quality and erosion due to
the forest harvesting and degradation of social quality
and productivity.
Hi, I'm Mike.
And I'm going to speak a little about the opposition
to the use of biofuels.
The ecological impact, some of the opponents argue.
There has been studies that question whether more energy
is used to make ethanol than is actually gained.
Also, there is some question on the CO2 reduction levels.
Studies have shown that really they are marginal at best.
There is a decrease in arable cropland available for food
crops, possible desertification, which is actually going on now
in China and Afghanistan, North Africa and some parts
in South America.
Along with this, there is question about the further
encroachment on the rain forest and habitats.
As lands cleared, put in the grain crops for the ethanol.
There's an economic impact on the food supply.
Not only are we talking about the increase of corn, rice,
with that increase, there will be an increase
across the board for meat.
One of the things I saw, we're pitting the filling station
against the corner grocery market.
There is lower crop yields reduced to the food stocks
of poor countries.
There is concern right now whether we can feed the people
of the world the way it is, and now we are going to be turning
that into fuel.
That's it.
[unclear audio].
The future of biofuel technology.
Biofuel technology seems to be bright future as people change
their views on environmental stewardship.
The need for sustainable and renewable fuels will spur
on technology to improve processes, infrastructure,
and agriculture necessary to provide for future fuel needs
as well as world food needs.
Development of new sources of biomass feedstocks like
the switchgrass, wood chips, and cellulose based biofuels
will reduce the current use of food source crops for biofuels.
The US Department of Energy wants the US biofuels usage
to increase from 3% currently to 30% by 2025.
Of course, the need for government and private sector
to support and funding is needed to meet this goal.
In conclusion, we believe that biofuel technology has
a long way to go before it is considered the fuel
of the future.
Many problems are ahead must be addressed, or we risk creating
an even worse environmental problem than global warming--
that is starvation.
Tough decisions must be made, and governments and industries
have to support the initiatives in solving these problems before
biofuels can become the replacement for petroleum.
Without worldwide effort, biofuels will remain
a regional solution to a global problem.
Thank you for your support, any questions?
[no dialogue].
(Dr. Wahby). You did very well.
Thank you.
[audience applause].