Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Environmentally Sustainable Biofuels - The
Case for Biodiesel, Biobutanol and Cellulosic
Ethanol
Palligarnai T. Vasudevan, Michael D. Gagnon, and Michael S. Briggs
Abstract
Due to diminishing petroleum reserves and the deleterious environmental
consequences of exhaust gases from fossil-based fuels, research on renewable and
environmentally friendly fuels has received a lot of impetus in recent years. With
oil at high prices, alternate renewable energy has become very attractive. Many of
these technologies are eco-friendly. Besides ethanol, other alternatives are: biodiesel
made from agricultural crops or waste cooking oil that is blended with diesel; biobu-
tanol; gas-to-liquids (GTL) from the abundance of natural gas, coal, or biomass;
oil trapped in the shale formations such as found in the western United States,
and heavy oil lodged in Canadian tar sands. In this chapter, we examine advances
made in environmentally friendly fuels such as biodiesel, biobutanol, and cellulosic
ethanol in recent years.
Keywords
Biodiesel
·
Cellulosic ethanol
·
Biobutanol
·
Lipase
·
Microalgae
·
Microbial
·
Enzymatic
1 Introduction
According to the Energy Information Administration [1], current estimates of world-
wide recoverable reserves of petroleum and natural gas are estimated to be 1.33
trillion barrels and 6,186 trillion cubic feet, respectively. The world consumes a
total of 85.4 million barrels per day of oil [2] and 261 billion cubic feet per day of
natural gas [3]. The US consumes 24.6% of the world's petroleum (2), 26.7% of the
world's natural gas (3), and 43% of the world's gasoline (1). At current consump-
tion levels, worldwide reserves of oil will be exhausted in 40 years, and reserves of
natural gas in 60 years.
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