references

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qoy-adFRu44

http://people.bath.ac.uk/np231​/what_is_bioethanol.htm

http://www.renewable-energy-so​urces.com/2008/05/25/bioethano​l-disadvantages-and-future-dev​elopment/

Conclusion

Bio ethanol is a good alternative. It is much cleaner than normal fuels, as by using bio ethanol, it reduces the emission of particulars and formation of ozone compared to normal fuels such as diesel. However, as bio ethanol, as first generation bio fuel, despite its advantages, it has many disadvantages too. Bio ethanol is expensive compare to normal fuels and space consuming in order to produce significant amount of bio ethanol. Moreover, the amount of CO and NOx produced by using bio ethanol is almost the same as using conventional fuels. Therefore, there are still many rooms for bio ethanol to improve in terms of production and source of production in order to make bio ethanol more efficient and able to be use widely.

Real life scenario

finland

http://www.troymedia.com/2011/07/07/finland-leading-race-to-convert-biomass-into-biofuels/

Waste from diamond mine site

http://www.nipawinjournal.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3191820

Case study---------- Fuel ethanol in Europe

Sweden is the strongest in the bioethanol transport market with over 912 E85 (BAFF, March 2007) fuel stations and 15,000 Ford Focus FFVs have been sold since it's debut on the Swedish market in 2001. By May 2006, 15% of all newly sold cars were either bioethanol or biogas fuelled vehicles. E85 is being sold at prices substantially less than petrol, between

75 and 85 € cents per litre compared to 1.11 € and 1.19 € for petrol. An important consideration when marketing the price of bioethanol is the fact that ethanol contains around 30% less energy per litre than petrol which means you have to fill up more frequently. Therefore the sale price will have an important impact on take-up of bioethanol as a transport fuel.

Elsewhere in Europe, there are at present (March 2007) 73 bioethanol petrol stations in Germany serving E50, E85 or E100. Morrisons Supermarket chain in the UK supply E85, available from 14 forecourts in the South of England marketed at 2 pence below petrol. However, the bioethanol for Morrisons is supplied from Futura Petroleums, which all comes from Brazilian fuel stocks. Despite the distances involved, it is still competitive to import bioethanol from across the Atlantic instead of producing it locally.

The map and figures below gives you a brief overview of the bioethanol fuel market and the density of E85 stations in comparison with petrol stations. The number of service stations per 10,000 persons gives a useful comparison. While the total number of petrol stations has declined dramatically over the last 20 years, being half or even one third of what they once RESTMAC - Bioethanol Production and Use 11 were, the bioethanol stations are still very low in comparison as they are now just entering into operation in Western Europe with the exception of Sweden.

In Sweden, the first E85 filling station appeared in 1995 but steady expansion started only in 2002

(Saab, 2006).

Benefits and disadvantages of Bioethanol

BENEFITS

• exhaust gases of bioethanol is cleaner than conventional oil like petroleum
• it is carbon neutral
• it is sustainable unlike fossil fuels
• The usage of ethanol or fuel-flexible engines will reduce the emission of carbon compounds by 80% and the one of CO2 by 30%

DISADVANTAGES

• The production of ethanol fills the air with greenhouse gases (GHG) in the amounts comparable to the emissions of internal-combustion engines
• The energy content of bioethanol is 70% of petrol
• The factories where you can produce bioethanol are right on the field(expensive to transport)
• Expensive
• Large areas of land is required in order to produce significant volumes bioethanol.

Use of Bioethanol

Nowadays bioethanol is the most widespread biofuel.

Especially in those countries with abundant food production, raw material for bioethanol can be easily available thus cost is minimized. In addition, government of those countries, including China, USA, Brazil and Australia, is providing subsidize to encourage those companies to produce cleaner energy sources like bioethanol etc. The by-products also can be used to do other thing in an eco friendly way thus the end products won’t affect the environment also.

In Brazil, due to the large production of sugar cane, bioethanol is used occasionally to power cars and in the United States biofuels are used from corn. In Britain, although bioethanol is rarely used, it is available in a number of fuel stations as ethanol can be mixed with either petrol or diesel in small quantities however Citroen released the new C8 in 2006 which is capable of running on 30% ethanol fuel. Engines where ethanol can be mixed have been specially modified.

Due to the widespread of interest shown by consumers, researchers in the future aim to invent engines capable of running only on ethanol resulting in greater efficiency.

Uses:

Chemicals

A number of chemicals are produced in the ethanol industry and potentially even more in the 2nd generation bioethanol industry, serving a wide range of uses in the pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, beverages and medical sectors as well as for industrial uses.

The market potential for bioethanol is therefore not just limited to transport fuel or energy production but has potential to supply the existing chemicals industry.

Transport Fuel

Bioethanol has mostly been used as a biofuel for transport, especially in Brazil. Indeed it was in Brazil where the first bioethanol fuelled cars emerged on a large-scale. Although generally unknown to the average consumer who fills up their car with petrol, a large volume of bioethanol is already used in Europe as it is blended with petrol at 5%. It is used as a substitute for lead as an oxygenating additive and has a high octane rating, which improves performance. Although the eventual target is the private consumer, only a few regions have good public awareness, namely Sweden and Germany, of bioethanol's potenial to, at least, partly replace petrol as a transport fuel in Europe.

In addition supermarkets who operate petrol stations are seeing the opportunity to provide petrol/ethanol blends from 5-85% (E5-E85). Even though most experts agree that up to a 10% mix will not damage modern car engines, the manufacturer warranty for standard cars is set at 5%. To maintain the warranty the car engines need to be modified to support higher proportion fuel mixes or one has to buy a fuel flexible vehicle (FFV, also known as a flex-fuel vehicle).

Fuel Cells

Fuel cells are another potential area for ethanol use to produce heat and power. Fuel cells function by combining the fuel hydrogen with oxygen from the air to produce electrical energy, with water vapour and heat as by-products. Fuel Cells have a typical electrical efficiency of between 30 and 60 % and an overall efficiency, if using the heat by-product, of 70- 90 %. The units run with very low noise emissions and pollutant gas emissions are also reduced considerably. Its disadvantages are its relatively high cost and their short life span (regular replacement of components). They are, however, regarded as very reliable for the duration of their lifespan and are often used for emergency power. Some uses of fuel cell

CHP systems include providing heat and power for hospitals, university campus', remote telecommunication stations as well as for transport, stationary power generation and residential buildings. The recent growth in small residential (0.5 to 10 kWe) fuel cell CHP is based on natural gas fuelled units.