BIOFUELS

A project by• Ryan Wong• Low Ji Ken• Lei Yuxian

What is a biofuel?

Fuels produced from plant biomass or treated industrial waste that can be used as a source of energy

Examples: Methane from animal waste Sawdust from drilling wood.

Advantages

• Cost: cheaper than gasoline and fossil fuels

• Available from many sources(plants, human waste) and thus is recyclable, unlike fossil fuels or oil

Advantages

• Security: Locally produced, wont be influenced by foreign countries

• Economy: Helps open up jobs to harvest biofuel: esp in rural areas

• Carbon emmision: Easier to burn, less CO2 when burned.

Disadvantages

• Amount of energy: Low, great amounts of it is required for

• Produces a lot of green house gases from producing it.

• High cost – refining it takes a lot of money to make

Disadvantages

• Water: Huge amounts of water is used to irrigate plants.

• Food: Use necessary staple food to produce biofuels- shortage.

Case Study: Flight plan towards sustainable

aviation biofuels in Mexico

• The Mexican Federal Government has started a programme to ensure the development and viability of sustainable aviation biofuels in the country.

Case study:Flight plan

• A series of workshops for the Flight Plan were designed using a schematic view of the supply chain.

• The first workshop was organised to look into the general problematic of biofuel, specifically to the sustainability issues that need to be observed across the supply chain.

• The other workshops were organised so that all the points across the supply chain could be analysed, including: raw materials and extraction; infrastructure and refining; and financing, legislation, logistics and distribution.

• An average audience of 120 people throughout this project, all the principal actors, as well as several institutions, gathered in the same forum sharing their ideas and proposals, in this case study

Case study: Problems/limitations

• Mexico has historically been handicapped in the production of the necessary fuels to feed the requirements of its economy.

• For many years, the vegetable oil industry, important in producing biofuel, has been in on standby, as many of the usual vegetable oil generating feedstocks have not been produced in Mexico for some time due to lack of water or adequate land.

• The difference in densities between the biofuel and the fossil fuel have to be taken into account and has caused problems in the storage of the biofuel.

Youtube vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ck3FYVNl6s

Biblography

• http://www.enviro.aero/FlightplantowardssustainableaviationbiofuelsinMexico.aspx

• http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/Advantages_and_Disadvantages_of_Biofuels