Blend fuels from trees with biodiesel to power engines

Biofuels from wood chips The need for energy is increasing day by day with increased equipment needing fuels for its working. Petroleum and coal are some of the non-renewable fuels available today that prove to be harmful as it induces global warming. Moreover its stocks are decreasing day by day, proving a need for finding alternative sources of renewable energy.

This is why researchers in Georgia have come across a new biofuel that is derived from wood chips. Though wood has produced different fuels over the years, this new fuel that is unnamed, is blended with biodiesel and petroleum diesel so that it can be used to power conventional engines.

This new method of producing fuels from wood is much cheaper than previous methods where the oil is treated inexpensively to use both in unmodified diesel engines and be blended with biodiesel and petroleum diesel. Pellets which are quarter an inch in diameter and six-tenths of an inch long are heated with wood chips at a high temperature, in the absence of oxygen. This process is called pyrolysis.

About a third of the wood’s dry weight turns into charcoal and the remaining, gas. This gas is condensed into liquid bio-oil to be chemically treated. Once this process is over, 34% of the bio-oil is used to power engines. Work is still going on to find means of getting more oil from the wood.
With Georgia having about 24 million acres of forest land, this process of producing fuels will provide increased employment and tax revenues. In addition to this, the fuel also reduces the amount of fuel that has to otherwise be imported form other states and countries.

Moreover, this new fuel offers environmental benefits with it being nearly carbon neutral as it does not increase the production of heat trapping carbon dioxide into the air. This is of course viable only if new trees are planted to replace the trees that were used to create this fuel.

Test plots have also been set up in Tifton, Georgia to find out if the charcoal that is produced while making the fuel can be used as a fertilizer. If this proves possible, researchers say that this biofuel will indeed be carbon negative as carbon is removed from the atmosphere when a plant is grown. If all that carbon is not used and returned to the soil inertly, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is decreased.
Researchers are optimistic on this factor about the biofuel as in most soils, carbon char has beneficial effects on the ecology of the soil, its maintenance of fertility and its productivity. Though the biofuel works well, there are still many tests that have to be conducted to find out its long term effect on engines, the best way of transporting and storing the biofuel and to find out more about its emissions.

On the whole, this biofuel is a renewable source of energy that brings lots of promise for meeting the fueling needs of the world of tomorrow.