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This is Solar Power, Part III

04 Nov 09 | Commentary, Environment

A review off all the energy systems powered by our sun, either directly or indirectly.

Part III: Liquid Bio Fuels

Renewable: Yes
Environmental impact: Moderate
EROEI: Low
Cost: Low to High
Maintenance cost: Depends

Corn Field prior to harvest

Corn Field prior to harvest

Bio fuels and bio mass can be anything that was grown for the purpose of conversion to a fuel.  A wood lot use to provide fuel for a wood stove to heat a house can be considered bio fuel.  For our purposes, however, I will limit the discussion to liquid fuels mostly used to replace fossil fuels in the transportation sector.

Plants convert sunlight and CO2 into starches, complex sugars and O2 via photosynthesis.  The process of photosynthesis is not fully understood and has not been replicated in a non-living organism.  Some plants, such as corn, sugar beets, sugar cane are good feed stocks for ethanol production.  Other plants, such as soy, corn, palms are good feed stocks for vegetable oils, which can be burned in their raw state, or turned into bio diesel.

The advantages are mainly that these fuels can be used in existing cars and trucks with little or no modifications.  They are lower carbon emitters than conventional fossil fuels because the feed stocks remove CO2 from the atmosphere.  They also produce less non-carbon pollutants such as sulfuric acid, sulfuric oxides and nitric oxides.

The intrinsic value of liquid fuels is high for the transportation sector.  Liquid fuels are easily shipped, stored and transferred between storage and use facilities using existing infrastructure.  Liquid fuels are the densest form of conventional energy and are easily converted to both heat and mechanical motion.  For that reason, many are viable even with low EROEI numbers.  It would be extremely difficult to power a car or truck on solid bio mass such as wood or switch grass.

The down side, especially for corn based ethanol is it increases food costs for two reasons.  Corn used as feed grain is diverted to the energy sector, and farmers who might grow wheat or some other crop end up growing corn because the government subsides are better.

There is also some very serious questions about bio fuels being able to meet the demands for especially the transportation sector

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04 Nov 09 | Commentary, Environment
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