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2006 Annual Energy Outlook, with Projections to 2030.
Department of Energy

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International, Inc.

Currently the main feedstock in the United States for the production of ethanol is corn, but trials of a new crop, switchgrass, are showing much greater yields.

The dominant ethanol feedstock in warmer regions is sugarcane.

In some parts of Europe, particularly France and Italy, wine is used as a feedstock due to massive oversupply.

The largest single use of ethanol is as a motor fuel and fuel additive. The largest national fuel ethanol industries exist in Brazil. The Brazilian ethanol industry is based on sugarcane; as of 2004, Brazil produces 14 billion liters annually, enough to replace about 40% of its gasoline demand. Also as a result, they announced their independence from Middle East oil in April 2006. Most new cars sold in Brazil are flexible-fuel vehicles that can run on ethanol, gasoline, or any blend of the two. In addition, all fuel sold in Brazil contains at least 25% ethanol.

The products of the combustion of pure ethanol and pure oxygen (under ideal conditions) are water and carbon dioxide. The chemical combustion reaction of pure ethanol with pure oxygen is: C₂H₆O + 3 O₂ → 2 CO₂ + 3 H₂O. However, the general reaction with stoichiometric air (normal atmospheric air) will produce a combination of water, carbon dioxide and an oxide of nitrogen. Nitrogen monoxide and nitrogen dioxide are possible products depending on combustion temperatures and reaction conditions.

The United States fuel ethanol industry is based largely on corn. As of 2005, its capacity is 15 billion liters annually. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires U.S. fuel ethanol production to increase to 28 billion liters (7.5 billion gallons) by 2012. In the United States, ethanol is most commonly blended with gasoline as a blend of up to 10% ethanol, known as E10 and nicknamed "gasohol". This blend is widely sold throughout the U.S. Midwest, which contains the nation's chief corn-growing centers.

In 2005, the Indy Racing League announced its cars will run on a 10% ethanol - 90% methanol blend fuel, and in 2007, the cars will race on 100% ethanol.

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Thailand, India, China and Japan have now launched their national gasohol policies. Thailand started blending 10% ethanol for its ULG95 in 1985; now there are more than 4000 stations serving E10. The blending of 10% ethanol into 95 RON gasoline will be mandated by the end of 2006 and into 91 RON gasoline by the end of 2010. It is expected that once the production of ethanol from cassava and sugar cane molasses can be ramped up, a higher blending ratio like E20 or E85 or even Flexible Fuel Vehicles will be introduced to Thailand.

Ethanol with a water content of 2% or less can be used as the alcohol in the production of biodiesel, replacing methanol, which is quite dangerous to work with.

General Motors of Canada are preparing the launch of E85 flex-fuel vehicles, and will be sold at the same price as their gasoline-only versions. Most of these new vehicles are being produced in Oshawa, Ontario.

General Motors in the United States states they have over 2 million vehicles on the road in all 50 states that are capable of running under a 85% ethanol-15% gasoline blend known as E85. In 2006, GM will produce more than 400,000 flexible fuel vehicles annually -- vehicles that can also operate on gasoline or E85 ethanol without any modifications or special switches.

Unfortunately, ethanol cannot be transported by pipeline due to its chemical volatility. It currently is transported by railways and barges.

Also some of the problems experienced with ethanol include:

Ethanol has only 66% of the energy content of gasoline (in terms of lower heating value with units of "BTU/US gallons").

Some believe butanol fuel is a better option since it can be made from the same corn and other natural products. It works in all existing cars not just flex fuel ones. It gets better gas-mileage than gasoline or ethanol and provides better octane levels. It also pollutes less than ethanol or gasoline per mile.

BioDiesel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Biodiesel Feedstock

Soybeans are used as a source of biodiesel

A variety of oils can be used to produce biodiesel. These include:

• Virgin oil feedstock; rapeseed and soybean oils are most commonly used, though other crops such as mustard, palm oil, hemp, jatropha, and even algae show promise (see List of vegetable oils for a more complete list);
• Waste vegetable oil (WVO);
• Animal fats including tallow, lard, yellow grease and as a byproduct from the production of Omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil.

Worldwide production of vegetable oil and animal fat is not yet sufficient to replace liquid fossil fuel use. Furthermore, some environmental groups object to the vast amount of farming and the resulting over-fertilization, pesticide use, and land use conversion that would be needed to produce the additional vegetable oil.

Many advocates suggest that waste vegetable oil is the best source of oil to produce biodiesel. However, the available supply is drastically less than the amount of petroleum-based fuel that is burned for transportation and home heating in the world. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), restaurants in the US produce about 300 million US gallons (1,000,000 m³) of waste cooking oil annually.^[1] Although it is economically profitable to use WVO to produce biodiesel, it is even more profitable to convert WVO into other products such as soap. Hence, most WVO that is not dumped into landfills is used for these other purposes. Animal fats are similarly limited in supply, and it would not be efficient to raise animals simply for their fat. However, producing biodiesel with animal fat that would have otherwise been discarded could replace a small percentage of petroleum diesel usage.

The estimated transportation fuel and home heating oil used in the United States is about 230,000 million US gallons (870 million m³) (Briggs, 2004). Waste vegetable oil and animal fats would not be enough to meet this demand. In the United States, estimated production of vegetable oil for all uses is about 23,600 million pounds (10,700,000 t) or 3,000 million US gallons (11,000,000 m³)), and estimated production of animal fat is 11,638 million pounds (5,279,000 t). (Van Gerpen, 2004)

Biodiesel feedstock plants utilize photosynthesis to convert solar energy into chemical energy. The stored chemical energy is released when it is burned, therefore plants can offer a sustainable oil source for biodiesel production. Most of the carbon dioxide emitted when burning biodiesel is simply recycling that which was absorbed during plant growth, so the net production of greenhouse gasses is small.

Feedstock yield efficiency per acre affects the feasibility of ramping up production to the huge industrial levels required to power a signifcant percentage of national or world vehicles. The highest yield feedstock for biodiesel is hydroponic algae, which can produce 250 times the amount per acre as soybeans. [1]