Posted on 05/13/2008 1:50:06 PM PDT by RJenkins
Hello, everyone!! Been to the pumps lately? Well, let me tell you, it is only going to get worse! But the good news is this, we are finally going to have a President, (John McCain) who is open to the new answers to the problem. If the solution talked about in the following article can be speedily developed, we could possible see one dollar a gallon prices again!
Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of "green gasoline," a liquid identical to standard gasoline yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees.
Reporting in the cover article of the April 7, 2008 issue of Chemistry & Sustainability, Energy & Materials (ChemSusChem), chemical engineer and National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER awardee George Huber of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass) and his graduate students Torren Carlson and Tushar Vispute announced the first direct conversion of plant cellulose into gasoline components.
In the same issue, James Dumesic and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Madison announce an integrated process for creating chemical components of jet fuel using a green gasoline approach. While Dumesic's group had previously demonstrated the production of jet-fuel components using separate steps, their current work shows that the steps can be integrated and run sequentially, without complex separation and purification processes between reactors.
While it may be five to 10 years before green gasoline arrives at the pump or finds its way into a fighter jet, these breakthroughs have bypassed significant hurdles to bringing green gasoline biofuels to market.
"It is likely that the future consumer will not even know that they are putting biofuels into their car," said Huber. "Biofuels in the future will most likely be similar in chemical composition to gasoline and diesel fuel used today. The challenge for chemical engineers is to efficiently produce liquid fuels from biomass while fitting into the existing infrastructure today."
For their new approach, the UMass researchers rapidly heated cellulose in the presence of solid catalysts, materials that speed up reactions without sacrificing themselves in the process. They then rapidly cooled the products to create a liquid that contains many of the compounds found in gasoline.
The entire process was completed in under two minutes using relatively moderate amounts of heat. The compounds that formed in that single step, like naphthalene and toluene, make up one fourth of the suite of chemicals found in gasoline. The liquid can be further treated to form the remaining fuel components or can be used "as is" for a high octane gasoline blend.
"Green gasoline is an attractive alternative to bioethanol since it can be used in existing engines and does not incur the 30 percent gas mileage penalty of ethanol-based flex fuel," said John Regalbuto, who directs the Catalysis and Biocatalysis Program at NSF and supported this research.
"In theory it requires much less energy to make than ethanol, giving it a smaller carbon footprint and making it cheaper to produce," Regalbuto said. "Making it from cellulose sources such as switchgrass or poplar trees grown as energy crops, or forest or agricultural residues such as wood chips or corn stover, solves the lifecycle greenhouse gas problem that has recently surfaced with corn ethanol and soy biodiesel."
Beyond academic laboratories, both small businesses and Fortune 500 petroleum refiners are pursuing green gasoline. Companies are designing ways to hybridize their existing refineries to enable petroleum products including fuels, textiles, and plastics to be made from either crude oil or biomass and the military community has shown strong interest in making jet fuel and diesel from the same sources.
How many trees per gallon is this? Would it cause the same problems for wildlife and lumber production that ethanol causes for food and agriculture?
I think I’m just going to hold my breath and hope for some good old fashioned elfin magic.
DU will be ecstatic. Their mole got the nod.
Hey everybody, I just invented a pill that will turn water into gasoline! Wait, I’ll ge right back. There’s a knock at the d....................
Rubber bands and wind up motors are the future.
“Hello, everyone!! Been to the pumps lately? Well, let me tell you, it is only going to get worse! But the good news is this, we are finally going to have a President, (John McCain) who is open to the new answers to the problem.”
The man refuses to talk about domestic production which makes him part of the problem.
That brings back memories. The year was 1967. The Summer of Love became the Winter of Our Discontent. The world in upheaval.
And in stepped five lads from Ohio, The Lemon Pipers. In two months their song had made it to the top of the charts. I can hear it now: "Listen while I sell, sell sell sell/my green gasoline ..."
You joined today and your very first foray onto the site is a vanity about an unproven and controversial technology, coupled with support for a very unpopular Republican presidential candidate (although we are going to have to elect him.)
And, to this point, you haven't replied once to others on YOUR vanity thread. We call this a hit and run, and it's usually perpetrated by a person who is looking to disrupt this forum.
What say you, Russ?
McCain’s great idea sounds like more competition for agricultural land. McCain as already shown an inability to think things through. Anything that requires government “startup” or subsidy is NOT economically efficient and does not contribute at all to a real solution.
You brought up the law of unintended consequences and unforeseen difficulties. Most of these wide-eyed greenies never consider the down-the-road effects of their "wonderful" plans. Like ethanol.
McCain Favors End To Ethanol Subsidy As Food Costs Soar
Investors Business Daily | Monday, April 28 2008 | Jed Graham
Posted on 04/26/2008 3:23:50 PM PDT by Jacquerie
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2007455/posts
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.