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Run On Biofuels

Decent Essays

Should Australia legislate vehicles to run on biofuels instead of petroleum?

Two interconnecting critical issues present in societies globally is the declining supply of fossil fuels and the growing emissions of carbon released into the atmosphere.
The burning of these fossil fuels release vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing significantly to the greenhouse effect. A large proportion of energy sourced from fossil fuels is used for modes of transport and presently an estimated 97 percent of all energy consumption by vehicles and airplanes in Australia is sourced from petroleum which is non-renewable resource that’s dwindling fast out of supply. Additionally, combustion of petroleum produces emissions such as …show more content…

A triglyceride consists of a glycerine molecule as its base that has three long chains of fatty acids attached. The nature of these fatty acids can affect the characteristics of biodiesel produced. During the esterification process the triglyceride reacts with alcohol in the presence of a catalyst which is commonly a strong alkaline like sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. The alcohol reacts with fatty acids to form biodiesel and crude glycerol. The glycerine is denser in comparison to biodiesel and they are separated by gravity with glycerine settling to the bottom of the reaction vessel. Sometimes, a centrifuge can be used to separate the two molecules quicker. After glycerine and biodiesel are separated, the excess alcohol produced in each stage is removed with a flash evaporation process or by distillation. However, in both cases the alcohol is reused because it can be recovered with the aid of distillation equipment.

Ethanol can be produced using two methods, which are hydration and the fermentation of glucose. Hydration included an added reaction amongst ethene and water as super-heated steam. Hydration necessitates a temperature of 300 and a reasonably high pressure of between 50 -80 atmospheres. The steam and ethene are passed over a catalyst such as phosphoric acid or sulfuric acid to produce ethanol(refer to figure 1). Ethanol produced from this process is referred to as synthetic

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