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BIODIESELWhat is
Biodiesel
? Well, it is a light to dark yellow liquid immiscible with water, has a high boiling point and low vapor pressure. It also refers to a diesel-equivalent, processed fuel derived from biological sources(such as vegetable oils), which can be used in unmodified diesel-engine vehicles.
It is biodegradable and non-toxic, and typically produces about 60% less net carbon dioxide emissions than petroleum-based diesel. In a 1912 speech Rudolf Diesel (the inventor of the 1st diesel engine) said, “The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today but such oils may become, in the course of time, as important as petroleum and the coal-tar products of the present time.” In reality his words have been proven to be true due to the rapid popularization of biodiesel in Europe, some parts of America and recently Kenya. The main reason for this growth is due to major environmental concerns such as ozone layer depletion and the alarming rate of global warming.
A variety of oils can be used to produce biodiesel . These include: • Virgin oil feedstock; rapeseed and soybean oils are most commonly used, soybean oil alone accounting for about ninety percent of all fuel stocks; other crops such as mustard, flax, sunflower, canola, palm oil, hemp, jatropha, and even algae. • Waste vegetable oil. • Animal fats including tallow, lard, yellow grease, chicken fat and the by-products of the production of Omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil. • Sewage. A company in New Zealand has successfully developed a system for using sewage waste as a substrate for algae and then producing bio-diesel. 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 gases is small.
1. Lower engine wear. Pure, non-blended biodiesel can be poured straight into the tank of any diesel vehicle and this is why it is used by millions of car owners in Europe. 2. It is a better solvent than standard diesel; it “cleans” the engine, removing deposits in the fuel lines that may cause blockages in the fuel injectors. Car manufacturers such as Scania and Volkswagen allow most of their engines to operate on 100% biodiesel since it can be used in its pure form but requires certain engine modifications to avoid maintenance and performance problems. 3. It is a renewable fuel that can be manufactured from algae, vegetable oils, animal fats or recycled restaurant greases; it can be produced locally in most countries. It is safe, biodegradable and reduces air pollutants, such as particulates, carbon monoxide by approximately 50% and carbon dioxide by 78% and hydrocarbons. 4. It can also be used as a heating fuel in domestic and commercial boilers. Existing oil boilers can easily and cheaply be converted to run on biodiesel.
The presence of water is a problem because: • Water reduces the heat of combustion of the bulk fuel. This means more smoke, harder starting, less power. • Water causes corrosion of vital fuel system components: fuel pumps, injector pumps, fuel lines, etc. • Water freezes to form ice crystals near 0 °C (32 °F). These crystals provide sites for nucleation and accelerate the gelling of the residual fuel. •
Water
accelerates the growth of microbe colonies which can plug up a fuel system. Biodiesel users who have heated fuel tanks therefore face a year-round microbe problem.
During the same period, nations in other parts of the world also saw local production of biodiesel starting up: by 1998 the Austrian Biofuels Institute had identified 21 countries with commercial biodiesel projects. In 2007, it is now available at many normal service stations across Europe. Biodiesel in KenyaJatropha Industries Ltd was formed in 2007 with the aim of producing affordable biodiesel into Kenya. As you can already tell, we used the name of the plant from which the fuel is derived from in the company name but for those who don’t know I will define what jatropha is. Jatropha is a genus of approximately 175 shrubs and trees from the family Euphorbiaceae. It was spread as a valuable hedge plant to Africa and Asia by Portuguese traders.
The oil from Jatropha seeds can be used for making biodiesel fuel, it can grow in wastelands,and it yields more than four times as much fuel per hectare as soybean and about half as much as corn. A hectare of jatropha produces 1,892 liters of fuel (about 6.5 barrels per acre). In Kenya, 80% of the land consists of arid and semi-arid land in which jatropha can thrive very well. Our vision is to use all this land that is ignored in order to do the following:- I. Create employment – Many Kenyans who live below US $1 a day languish under terrible conditions because they are unemployed. This leads to an increase in crime and the level at which slums mushroom in urban centers such as Nairobi.
We want to change all this, by setting up a jatropha farms that will not only create job opportunities but train people how to be efficient arable farmers. There is no use of letting all this arid/semi-arid land go to waste while it can be used to help people create wealth forseveral families that have to undergo unimaginable hardships just because the government has the wrong policies in place. We want to provide a better means of living for people who are stuck in the slums so that they can move out to much better living conditions, provide us with manpower for the plantations and in return we shall provide them with guaranteed employment and an opportunity to better themselves. II. Reforestation – Even though 80% of Kenyan land cannot be used for subsistence agriculture, the other 20% is more than enough to provide crop for the whole nation and also for international trade. We want to plant trees such as Prosopis that can withstand the conditions in these arid areas and at maturity, (which is about 8 years) these trees will provide wood that is very high in quality and can be compared to that of mahogany. By encouraging people to plant these trees we can create an additional source of income in areas that are considered “wastelands” when these trees are harvested by paper millers and furniture making companies. III. Ecotourism – Communities living in these arid/semi-arid areas can benefit immensely through ecotourism in which people can travel to and be accommodated in such areas to observe what exactly happens in the jatropha plantations. This would be similar to what happens in the tea plantations in Kericho but now the local people will get jobs as tour guides, drivers, security personnel, cooks and many other posts that will be deemed as necessary.
Jatropha curcas (physic nut) is used to produce the non-edible Jatropha oil, for making candles and soap. The cakes remaining after the oil is pressed can be used as feed in digesters and gasifiers to produce biogas for cooking and in engines, or the cakes can be used for fertilizing, and sometimes even as animal feed.
Most nations do not have sufficient arable land to produce biofuels for the nation's vehicles but third world countries use marginal land e.g. jatropha grown along rail lines. More recent studies using a species of algae with up to 50% oil content have concluded that only 28,000 km˛ or 0.3% of the land area of the US could be utilized to produce enough biodiesel to replace all transportation fuel the country currently utilizes. Furthermore, otherwise unused desert land (which receives high solar radiation) could be most effective for growing the algae,and the algae could utilize farm waste and excess carbon dioxide from factories to help speed the growth of the algae. There is a cheap, simple, safe and very effective processing set-up that you can easily build yourself. It's easy to make high-quality biodiesel this way. A used 90-litre kerosene water-heater tanks with a tight-fitting removable lid would suffice.
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