Biodiesel and ethanol are both biofuels: fuels produced from organic matter. As global warming worsens and our oil supply dwindles, biodiesel and ethanol have both been touted as the fuels of the future. They are purported to be renewable, and clean.

Because these similarities, people frequently confuse ethanol with biodiesel, and vice versa. Ethanol and biodiesel are completely different substances, with completely different properties. For one, ethanol is an alcohol. It is the alcohol found in beer, wine, vodka, etc.

If you drank biodiesel, on the other hand, you would most likely suffer harm. Biodiesel is an ester: a substance composed of an alcohol bonded with a fatty acid. The alcohol is usually ethanol, or methanol, also known as wood alcohol. The fatty acid is obtained from animal fats or plant oils.

So how is ethanol, the fuel, made? The same way that drinking alcohol is made: fermentation. Farmers grow high sugar or high starch crops, such as sugar cane. The sugar cane is juiced, and the juice is allowed to ferment. The alcohol is then purified.

Biodiesel is also made from plant matter. However, instead of sugary plants, crops with high oil content are favoured, such as rapeseed, palm trees, and corn. The crops are harvested and their oil extracted. The oil is then reacted with ethanol or methanol, to produce biodiesel.

The processes above describe making ethanol and biodiesel from new raw materials, as opposed to waste matter. It is possible to make both ethanol and biodiesel from waste. Compost can be fermented and ethanol extracted. Instead of using fresh oil, biodiesel manufacturers sometimes use waste oil from fast food restaurants.

If you live in a major city in North America, chances are 15% of the fuel you receive at the gas station is ethanol. The 15-85 mixture of alcohol and standard gasoline, lovingly nicknamed gasohol, has become the convention. It can run in any normal gasoline engine, with no modifications required.

Biodiesel cannot be used with a gasoline engine. It requires a diesel engine—any conventional diesel engine. Before switching over to biodiesel, however, ensure that your fuel lines are not made from natural rubber. Biodiesel will simply dissolve the hosing.

Engines in North America are predominantly gasoline-oriented. For this reason, gasoline pumps are much more popular than diesel pumps in North America. To use ethanol for your car, you simply need to visit your local gas station. To find biodiesel, however, you need to look around. Currently biodiesel is not mass produced in either Canada or the United States. Infrastructure for the transportation of biodiesel is not widespread. Awareness and demand for biodiesel is also low.

Consequently, you may need to travel a few miles before you can find a biodiesel station. Even then, the cost per litre is 250% that of gasohol. The low demand and its high price lead each other around in a vicious cycle. Which one is better for the environment? That is debatable. Both are renewable energy sources that come from organic matter. For this reason, their advantages and drawbacks are quite similar. In the end, however, ethanol is just easier to find.

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Shradha Merchant writes:

The Pros and Pros of Wind Turbines

When I hear people discussing the demerits of wind turbines vis-a-vis climate change, I wonder if they have lost their collective marbles! It makes my blood curdle …are they absolute & *^&^ (pardon my French) to even discuss the disadvantages of wind turbines and its negative impact on climate change?

Just to be sure and to get my facts right, I Googled the phrase – pros and cons of wind turbines – and I got 52K+ results. I began to think that perhaps the world was not crazy; maybe I was just ill informed. So I began to read up the possible disadvantages of wind turbines since I already knew its benefits.

‘Disadvantages’ of Wind Turbines

And that’s when my doubt was confirmed. People are nutz! Do you know what they have listed under the ‘disadvantages’ of wind turbines? And not just one site, quite a handful of them, right at the top of the search engine results.

I could be rolling on the floor, pealing with laughter, tears flowing from my eyes, hands clutching my belly – if it just wasn’t so sad. People believe this garbage. There are people out there who actually start doubting the eco-friendliness of wind turbines and its zero impact on climate change.

Forget Climate Change; Just See How They Spoil the View 

Yes, wind turbines are not pretty, yes, they are an eye sore, but hello! They actually help reverse the process of unnatural climate change. See, they effectively produce energy without dangerous side effects like pollution.

They don’t produce waste materials, or generate radioactive substances, or hog non-renewable sources like coal and oil to produce energy. They merely need wind – which is free and cheap!
Wind turbines are one of the few ways in which mankind can produce clean energy without harming Mother Earth – and if you gotta tolerate a view which is less than perfect, well, so be it!

And so Noisy?

Yeah, yeah they are noisy and they create a terrible hum but you know what? I’d prefer to go deaf – I won’t, but for the sake of argument, let’s assume one can go deaf if they live close to a wind turbine.

So, I prefer to tolerate the noise pollution instead of gagging to death and choking on pollutants that are created when oil (or coal or gas) is burnt to produce electricity.

I prefer the hum of harmless wind turbines instead of asthma, bronchitis, and other terrible diseases I’d probably cultivate if I were living next to a thermal power station or an oil refinery.

Wind Turbines can be Fragile and Expensive

Yes, they can be easily damaged by acts of god like a thunderstorm perhaps or fire – but let me know of one power station that is immune to that?

They might have an initially higher start up (small price to pay for climate change) which is a one-time cost.

Also, costs of electricity is slightly higher but am sure no one minds digging a little deeper in their pockets if they want a greener, cleaner climate change.

Valid Drawbacks of Wind Turbines

They aren’t really all that efficient (they can only work in ‘wind corridors’) and one wind turbine can power only 500 households. But studies have shown that if wind turbines were properly explored, they could produce 5 times more electricity than is currently needed – so hah!

Another drawback is that they might damage birds that tend to fly right into them and if you live nearby, your TV reception might be less than perfect.

So, for the sake of all couch potatoes and bird lovers, let’s dismantle wind turbines and allow climate change to proceed unchecked.

Do you agree with Shradha? Leave a comment below.

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The problem with aviation is twofold. Firstly, it one of the only areas where emissions are predicted to rise. Much of the blame for this is being laid at the door of the low-cost airlines, who have made flying cheaper and more popular. The aviation sector has seen an 87% increase in carbon dioxide emissions since 1990, with an increase of as much as 25% being predicted for the future.

Secondly, the greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft might be more damaging than other emissions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) carried on research on the subject. It found that the aerosols in jet engine exhausts had a range of additional negative impacts at high altitude. For example, the contrails and aerosols could alter the properties of clouds, thereby depleting protective ozone in the stratosphere.

It’s thought that aircraft emissions potentially cause two to four times the global warming effect of carbon dioxide produced on the ground.

Campaigners want us to take fewer flights, particularly short-haul ones. The economic downturn is proving their ally. 4.6 million fewer people flew through British airports in 2008 than the year before. This is the first reduction in passenger numbers since 1991. Airports with a large number of budget airline flights faired the worst.

London Stansted’s passenger numbers were 6% lower than the previous year, whilst London Gatwick’s dropped by 2.8%.

Also, a large number of airlines including XL, Zoom and Silverjet went bankrupt in 2008, further` reducing passenger numbers.

However, as economies recover, the demand for air travel is likely to increase. In particular, demand is likely to come from India and China as air travel becomes more affordable.

The aviation industry is not ignoring environmental concerns. The Director-General of the International Air Transport Association, Giovanni Bisignani, pointed out that over the past thirty years, aircraft noise had been reduced by three quarters and fuel efficiency had increased by 70% over the last 40 years. But he admits that current levels of greenhouse gas emissions are ‘politically unacceptable’.

The aircraft themselves are changing. Some changes are small but effective. Have you noticed the little winglets on the edges of many modern airliners? They increase lift and reduce drag. Both Boeing and Airbus have research programmes to increase the efficiency of winglets, with Boeing already filing patents for winglets with variable geometry.

Aviation Partners, a company that specializes in making these devices, says that by 2014, winglets will have saved five billion gallons of fuel!

The use of composite materials, that reduce weight and therefore need less power to lift, is increasing. The latest Boeing 787 Dreamliner is being made completely out of composites and should be 20% more efficient than the aircraft it replaces.

We might also see more aircraft unpainted: paint adds five hundred pounds in weight.

Inside the aircraft, fuel efficiency is being increased with advanced avionics and simple measures like cutting the weight of the service trolleys.

The new, larger aircraft capable of carrying more passengers, like the Airbus A380 and next generation Boeing 747, reduce the amount of greenhouse gases produced per passenger mile. Also we’re seeing long-haul, high capacity aircraft with only two, more economical, engines, such as the Airbus A330 and the Boeing 777.

Much fuel is wasted by aircraft being held in holding patterns before beng allowed to land. More efficient air traffic control with reduced taxi times, slower flying speeds and and more direct routes could all increase fuel efficiency. It’s estimated that if Europe had one single air traffic control authority, aircraft fuel consumption could be reduced by 12%.

But what of developments for the future? Hydrogen power for aircraft is likely to remain on the drawing board for many years to come.

Fossil fuels are likely to power aircraft for the foreseeable future. However, the use of biofuels is being developed. Sir Richard Branson, head of Virgin Atlantic, has set up a company to develop more environmentally-friendly aviation fuels.

In February 2008, a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 flew from London Heathrow to Amsterdam Schipol using a fuel extracted from a mixture of coconuts and Brazilian babassu nuts. Both these nuts do not compete with staple food sources and came from mature plantations. However, at high altitudes this biofuel is likely to freeze.

The competitions held by the X Prize organization have already been responsible for big leaps in technically-difficult areas such as space travel and self-driving vehicles. It’s just received funding for a competition to produce an aviation-grade biofuel.

But environmental groups have claimed that aviation biofuels are not the answer. Dr Doug Parr, Greenpeace’s chief scientist, said that less air travel was the only answer and labelled Virgin’s flight as ‘high-altitude greenwash’.

In the future, aircraft may even be nuclear-powered, just like Thunderbirds, the cult ’60s TV series. The US had a test programme in the 1950′s, but the concept of nuclear-powered bombers became redundant with the introduction of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Ian Poll. Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Cranfield University has called for a government-funded research programme to examine the feasibility of nuclear-powered aircraft. All we need now is Thunderbirds’ resident genius, Brains, to invent them!

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