Biofuels in transport

The most important way of moving in our days is cars. The most of them use gasoline or diesel for their propulsion, the problem is that this types of fuels are damaging our ozone layer to fast, and that may cause bigger effects in our planet, like the melting of glaciers, the increase of the sea level causing the flood of to many coast zones, and the rising of our earth temperature.

Actually to many environment business are trying to solve the pollution problem that is caused by the fossil-fuels, and they have conclude that the best way to help our planet in terms of transport, is using biofuels. The most common biofuels are biodiesel and bioethanol.

Biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long chain alkyl esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids with an alcohol producing fatty acid esters.Biodiesel is meant to be used in standard diesel engines and is thus distinct from the vegetable and waste oils used to fuel converted diesel engines. Biodiesel can be used alone, or blended with petro diesel. Biodiesel can also be used as a low carbon alternative to heating oil.

However, the biodiesel industry around the world since 2007 has been under pressure from higher priced feedstocks. Biodiesel markets are experiencing double digit growth in the United States and Asia, in particular India and China, where the government target is 15% replacement of petrodiesel by 2020.

As a response to all the ecological problems that the world has had, biethanol has earned its place in the transport business by being an ecological way of replacement of fossil-fuels. Biethanol consists on generating alcohol fuel by using vegetable waste. Bioethanol fuel is mainly produced by the sugar fermentation process, thus The production of this fuel only requires of  a sources of sugar such as corn, maize or wheat crops.

Bioethanol is a high octane fuel that has replaced lead as an octane enhancer in petrol. By blending ethanol with gasoline we can oxygenate the fuel mixture so it burns completely and reduces polluting emissions of CO2. They bioethanol produces greenhouse gas emissions; this means that the emissions that the  burning of this fuel produces will be absorb by the fuel crops through the growing process.

There are many advantages of using biodisel and bioethanol such as a significant reduce of CO2 emissions worldwide and a significant boost to the rural economy that has had a decline in the last years.