Biomass And Biofuels: Issues Flashcards
What is one significant down fall to biofuels?
Requires more agricultural land to produce the biomass
What is ethanol used for?
Is said to be used in cars but because of its low vapour pressure, if the car is cold then it wouldn’t be able to start
What is the energy produced like?
Energy produced for each L combusted is less than is generated by equal quantity of gasoline
- kinda shitty
How is bio ethanol formed?
Fermentation of carbs rom plants
-yeast driven fermentation of glucose from starch in corn kernels
What kind of ethanol solution is produced from the fermentation?
Dilute solutions of alcohol
- the more alcohol you have the slower the rate of conversion
How do you convert the dilute solution to fuel?
The water has to be removed through a distillation process
What is an alternative to bioethanol derived from corn?
Cellulose hemicellulose and lignin from plants
Why is lignin different from cellulose and he I cellulose?
Unfermentable but can be burned to produce the fuel needed to power the distillation
What is a first generation biofuel?
From edible crops like corn and soybeans
What are second generation biofuels?
Are produced from the waste of first generation crops
- more sustainable
Why are second generation fertilizer more sustainable?
- doesn’t need a lot of fertilizers or irrigation or water
- reduces to competition with food crops
- lower production costs
How do you convert ethanol to biomass?
- ground up to break the seal of the lignin
- disrupt the crystalline structure to allow the enzymes to react with the cellulose and hemicellulose
What are 3 benefits to using biofuels?
- Carbon neutral characteristic
- Renewable
- Smaller amounts of air pollutants are being emitted
