I looked at new cars recently, and was reminded of how much my choice of transportation, and the cost of it both in purchase price and use over time, is influenced by the cost and hazards of gasoline and other fossil fuels. It’s not very sustainable at our current approach.
The motor industry now produces 100,000 new vehicles a day worldwide. Petroleum based fuel prices continue to rise in the face of uncertainties of Middle East and other major oil fields supply. We know that in 20 to 30 years there will be a serious energy crisis with fossil fuels. And we know that using fossil fuels is harming our environment.
The way we work now, it can take up to 10 calories of energy to make 1 calorie of food. Only one fifth of the energy used to produce food is used on the actual farm, and half of that is used in chemicals such as nitrogen fertilizer. This can release into the atmosphere 3.7Kg of carbon dioxide for every 1 kg of fertilizer. Obviously this isn’t helping our ozone layer problem.
We now use twenty times the amount of insecticides we used in 1948 even though the insects are taking a larger share of the total yield.
Our human population is increasing at a staggering rate – it has quadrupled in the last century, from 1.5 billion to 6.3 billion and it now takes 80 times more energy to feed only four times more people.
The motor industry now produces 100,000 new vehicles a day worldwide. Petroleum based fuel prices continue to rise in the face of uncertainties of Middle East and other major oil fields supply. We know that in 20 to 30 years there will be a serious energy crisis with fossil fuels. And we know that using fossil fuels is harming our environment.
The way we work now, it can take up to 10 calories of energy to make 1 calorie of food. Only one fifth of the energy used to produce food is used on the actual farm, and half of that is used in chemicals such as nitrogen fertilizer. This can release into the atmosphere 3.7Kg of carbon dioxide for every 1 kg of fertilizer. Obviously this isn’t helping our ozone layer problem.
We now use twenty times the amount of insecticides we used in 1948 even though the insects are taking a larger share of the total yield.
Our human population is increasing at a staggering rate – it has quadrupled in the last century, from 1.5 billion to 6.3 billion and it now takes 80 times more energy to feed only four times more people.
However, all is not lost! There are answers, one of which lies in changing how we think about the land and how we take care of it. There are many things we can do to make things better. One way is using bio fuels. US EPA studies show methyl esters biodiesel is less toxic than table salt and more biodegradable than sugar, and does not have any of the toxic or environmental hazards of fossil diesel fuel.
Biodeisel can be made from many different crops, such as sugar cane, corn, cassava, palm oil, canola and switchgrass, wheat, wheatgrass, reed canary grass, hemp and willow coppice. A refinery can also produce by-products such as Lecithin, Phytosterol, Tocopherol, Carotenoids and bio pesticides (Glucosinolate).
Exhaust emissions of particulate matter from biodiesel are cut almost in half compared to overall particulate matter emissions from diesel fuel and the ozone forming potential of hydrocarbon emissions in bio diesel is 67 percent less than that of diesel fuel. Emissions of sulfur oxides and sulfates are almost eliminated and particulate matter such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) is greatly reduced. Carbon Monoxide is an average of 47 percent lower than with diesel fuel. Potential cancer causing agents called nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (nPAH) are greatly reduced. Cellulosic ethanol apparently reduces greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 85% over gasoline, and sugar-fermented ethanol reduces GHG emissions by 18% to 29% over gasoline. Cellulosic ethanol is a blend of normal ethanol that can be produced from a great diversity of biomass including waste from urban, agricultural, and forestry sources using cellulose instead of sugar.
Biofuels offer us the potential for sustainable energy options. All sorts of bio fuels have been tried, including oil-bearing algae and palm oil. And bio fuels can even be produced in the cities of the world. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says more than 15% of the world's food supply was produced by city farms in 1993. That fed 900 million people, and most importantly, was produced using urban wastes, without using any farming land! This farming approach suits production of bio fuels using waste vegetable oils. We need more work to make this a reality in individual communities though, to improve collection methods and utilization.
There are other benefits to sustainable practices. More than double the jobs are created in energy efficiency and conservation, compared to in new energy production. Biofuel processing creates jobs. Treatment with methanol is a safe, inexpensive, effective means of providing plants with a source of fixed carbon and carbon dioxide.
In a sustainable farm, the market is local and thus reduces travel costs and energy usage. Sustainable farms use fertilizer made from compost, a practice that reduces the production of CO2 and methane in landfills and locks CO2 from the atmosphere, sometimes for decades. We can produce a lot of oil for fuel, without even using any farming land. We can utilize spaces that currently sit idle, and in fact cost energy to care for. In India, the railways are planting oil producing trees called jatropha curcas along the railways, for example. Bio fuel can also be produced by microbreweries in the form of fuel ethanol using city wastes. Methane digesters and sewer composting produce bio fuels.
Linked farms called Talukas in India are filling local energy needs and creating local jobs. They produce a surplus of agricultural residues which are then available for biomass energy production.
Industrial hemp is a high-yielding multi-purpose crop. Hemp can yield four times as much biomass as a forest can yield. An acre of hemp yields approximately the same level of productivity as soy.
One way biofuels can contribute to the local systems is that villager’s can use grain to make ethanol and then still feed the high protein leftovers to livestock. The manure from the livestock can then be composted. Factors in farming include the percentage of yield versus the amount of land used. However, if a crop needs less inputs, makes sense in the crop management scheme or has more useful by products it may make sense to produce that crop even if it has lower yields overall. This reduces the need to have a large monoculture crop in order to have competitive pricing. Integrated on-farm biofuels production systems allow farmers to utilize their own fuels to run their equipment and buildings, and sell the remaining bio fuel produced for further profit.
Biofuel such as biodiesel is a biodegradable fuel that doesn’t produce emissions as do fossil fuels. It is made up of long chain fatty acids derived from renewable lipid sources. It is manufactured using lye, new vegetable oil, cooking oil, methanol and a lye catalyst of either potassium hydroxide (KOH) or sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Biodiesel can also be made from waste oil although it is more complicated. Transforming used cooking oil to biodiesel forms the natural, biodegradable degreaser glycerin as a by-product. Another ingredient of biodeisel is methanol. Methanol is a fixed-carbon nutrient source for plants that results in growth improvement, and is the main or only ingredient in barbecue fuel or fondue fuel. The Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan has developed a cost effective and renewable catalyst using glucose.
Biofuel such as biodiesel is a biodegradable fuel that doesn’t produce emissions as do fossil fuels. It is made up of long chain fatty acids derived from renewable lipid sources. It is manufactured using lye, new vegetable oil, cooking oil, methanol and a lye catalyst of either potassium hydroxide (KOH) or sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Biodiesel can also be made from waste oil although it is more complicated. Transforming used cooking oil to biodiesel forms the natural, biodegradable degreaser glycerin as a by-product. Another ingredient of biodeisel is methanol. Methanol is a fixed-carbon nutrient source for plants that results in growth improvement, and is the main or only ingredient in barbecue fuel or fondue fuel. The Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan has developed a cost effective and renewable catalyst using glucose.
Biodeisel is so user friendly that you can even make your own, with a little care. You will need lye, methanol, a blender, measuring scales, measuring beakers for methanol and oil , a storage container with bung and screw-on cap, funnels, a bottle for settling, a couple of bottles for washing, duct tape and a thermometer.
The lye is measured, and then the methoxide is mixed with the lye and shaken until the lye is completely dissolves in the methanol to form sodium methoxide or potassium methoxide. The oil is preheated and placed in blender, then the methoxide mixture is added. Blend on low for 20 minutes. The temperature should be maintained at 55 deg C (130 deg F) for one hour. The mixture is then transferred into a bottle for settling for 12-24 hours. This process will yield a darker-coloured glycerine by-product and bio diesel. The bio diesel is decanted into a clean jar and “washed” by combining with fresh water - a small aquarium air-pump and an air-bubbler stone can be used in the washing and settling. The washing removes free methanol. The mixture is stirred, and when the mixture is clear it is considered “dry” and ready to use.
Some fear monoculture tracts leading to crops being vulnerable to diseases and pests. Forecasts sometimes include a reduction of the land available for food production. And what if biofuel energy production changes too much agricultural production away from food crops and local people starve? Perhaps they would be better off using the crops they grow in some other way such as food and recycling the wastes into compost.
In places like Borneo and the Brazilian Amazon, virgin forest is being completely destroyed in order to grow soybeans and palm oil and soybeans. European Union laws requiring conventional fuels to be blended with biofuels help fuel this destruction. Palm oil’s international pricing is considered to be one of the leading causes of rainforest destruction in south-east Asia. We must ensure that crops used to make bio fuels are grown in a sustainable way without damaging or destroying local native forests.
Making your own biofuels can be dangerous. If making your own bio fuels, wear proper protective gloves, apron, and eye protection and do not inhale any vapours. Methanol can cause blindness and death, and is absorbed through the skin. Sodium hydroxide can cause severe burns and death. Together these two chemicals form sodium methoxide, which is an extremely caustic chemical. Wear chemical proof gloves with cuffs and cover exposed skin and work in ventilated area, using a Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus.
Biofuel helps encourage sustainable farming. A sustainable mixed farm can produce its own fuel, with much or possibly all of it coming from crop by-products and waste products without any dedicated land use, and with very low input levels. Bio fuels production is best suited to mixed, small local sustainable farms. This promotes local businesses and reduces hydrocarbon emissions from transporting goods to more distant selling places. No large corporation is necessary to make biofuels – anyone can do it with the proper ingredients, recipes, precautions and equipment. Profits from sales are more accessible to the common person rather than a large company. Use of sold biofuels contributes to a large reduction in toxic compounds released into our atmosphere. Increased plantings assist in locking Carbon Dioxide away from the atmosphere for decades, further reducing and controlling atmospheric CO2 levels. Biofuels promote recycling of waste materials leading to more efficient use of all our resources. We must make the switch to bio fuels, and we must do it right away!
Trillium
Only when the last tree is cut; only when the last river is polluted; only when the last fish is caught; only then will they realize that you cannot eat money. Cree Proverb
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