Algae Biodiesel: Fuel of the Future by Ray Subs

There is no question that alternative fuel sources must be found if we are going to reduce our dependence on oil, lower transportation costs, and stop damaging the environment. Algae biodiesel is a fuel alternative that has many people hopeful for these changes as it creates fuel efficiently without displacing food crops, damaging the environment, and it reduces our dependence on oil.

Corn, soybeans, and waste oil are all known sources for fuel alternatives, but food crops used to produce fuel oil have proven to be counterproductive and waste oils are finite in supply. Corn and soybeans used for making fuel take away from food that would have otherwise gone to consumers. This creates the potential to raise food prices. Food crops used to make fuel are also not as efficient as algae. It takes an acre of soybeans to make about 50 gallons of oil and an acre of corn to make only about 20 gallons of oil. In contrast, an acre of algae will produce about 10,000 gallons of oil over the course of a year. This difference is one of the main reasons that algae biodiesel has gained popularity in the race to produce alternative fuels but there are many other reasons why many people are considering it.

The economical nature of algae biodiesel means that 15000 square miles of algae farms would be able to produce enough biodiesel to power all of the cars, trucks, and other gas powered transportation in the US. If the US began farming operations on this scale we would be able to almost entirely eliminate our need for oil and fossil fuels. This farming figure may seem like a lot, but is only 300 square miles of algae farms per state, and larger states could easily spare more than 300 square miles for such farms. The environmental impact of algae biodiesel is nothing compared to fossil fuel use which means that we would also be helping to solve global warming and other climate issues caused by fossil fuels.

Algae biodiesel is also easy to produce compared with other types of biodiesel that require filtering and titrating. It is even possible to produce algae biodiesel at home which means that consumers would be able to produce their own fuel and reduce their individual need for oil. Individuals can take control of their own fuel needs and take some of the power away from big energy suppliers. This possibility means that energy costs could potentially fall even form the big producers.

Making algae biodiesel at home is not easy, however, but it is possible and very economical. Using algae to create fuel means that there is no waste and consumers can stop depending on oil with its quickly rising prices for their fuel needs. Every consumer has been impacted by the sharp rise in oil prices and if they continue to soar many people will end up not being able to afford their daily commute or will not be able to afford other necessities such as food in order to continue driving. There is no doubt that alternative fuel sources must be developed and quickly; ones that are sustainable and affordable for consumers.

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For more information about algae biodiesel and how to make your own algae biodiesel at home visit www.global-greenhouse-warming.com/making-algae-biodiesel.html

Alternative Fuels For Your Car by Laura Eggers Underhill

So many different types of alternative fuels are being developed, that it’s a very exciting time, somewhat like it must have been when the many varieties of crude cameras were being developed in the 19th century.

The primary goal is to produce fewer emissions, which not only are harmful to the air we breathe, but are also screwing up the planet in general. Another major goal is to reduce our dependence on oil, which is rapidly being depleted, partially resulting in unfathomable price hikes. Plus, the less we are dependent on foreign sources of oil, the better, for painfully obvious reasons.

In addition to hybrid cars, which use a combination of a gasoline engine with an electric motor powered by a battery, there are also flex-fuel vehicles, bi-fuel vehicles and converted vehicles which all allow you to use some form of alternative fuel, either alone or in combination with gasoline or diesel. Even plug-in electric hybrids are being developed which can use gasoline mixed with other fuels as a back-up source to electricity.

Types of alternative fuels used in cars include electricity, biodiesel, natural gas (methane), ethanol, methanol (wood alcohol), propane, hydrogen gas, and p-series fuels.

Biodiesel can be combined with petroleum diesel. Biodiesel is made from animal fats or vegetable oil, so we can produce it right here in the United States. It burns cleaner than pure diesel.

Electricity can come from fuel cells or a battery, and can be combined with gasoline for the most common hybrid car. There are all-electric cars, plug-in hybrids (which can acquire electricity from an outlet in your garage), or fuel cell cars.

Ethanol, otherwise known as E85, is usually combined with regular gasoline in various percentages. This is alcohol based and made from biomass or grains, such as wheat or corn. Since we can easily produce that, it frees us from foreign dependence on oil. It also burns cleaner. Flex-fuel vehicles that use 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline are already out there on the roads in several models.

Methanol was being combined with gasoline, but may be used in fuel-cell cars in the future. It comes from coal.

Natural gas, or methane, can power certain cars, which can run on either natural gas or gasoline, depending on what is available. It can be gotten from landfills, natural gas fields, or as a byproduct of oil drilling or coal mining. It must be compressed or liquefied to use in an automobile. It is possible to have bi-fuel vehicles, which run on regular gasoline or natural gas.

P-Series fuels are clear and can be used alone or combined with gasoline.

Hydrogen as fuel for cars is still in development. Hydrogen comes from water, which is still plentiful on this earth. It can be harnessed from petroleum refining in the form of natural gas, or it can come from running electricity through water. It must be converted to liquid or highly compressed to store it in the car, so it looks like it will be used mainly to power fuel cells in electric vehicles. It can also be mixed with natural gas for certain engines.

We usually think of propane as a fuel for camping lanterns and stoves, but it can also be used to power a car. It is a byproduct of natural gas and crude oil refining.

The more that these alternative fuels are used, the more that standard gasoline vehicles will stand out for their foul, smelly exhaust, until it will become positively embarrassing, (not to mention prohibitively expensive), to continue driving around harming the environment with one. Let’s hope that time comes soon.

About the Author

Laura Eggers Underhill writes for http://www.totally-hybrid-cars.com, a site for learning about the various hybrid cars available.

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Biodiesel-fuel for the 21st Century by Fei Lim

n this new age where fuel is the most precious commodity available, it is time that mankind turned to a more efficient, safer, cleaner, renewable fuel for use in our massively transportation dependent society. The answer to a century of wars over oil and the horrendous aftermath thereof are simply, in one word - biodiesel. Biodiesel has been around for over a century, but only recently has the world awakened to a need for fuels at any cost that will not destroy our already fragile ecosystem, and you will soon know why the whole world should be excited.

Biodiesel was first synthesized back in 1893 before the first diesel engine was even developed. Biodiesel is essentially oil of any type-be it animal fat or vegetable oil that has been reacted with an alcohol in a process called transesterification. The chemical name of the results of this reaction is mono-alkyl ester or biodiesel, and glycerol-common glycerin. Biodiesel can be used as an alternative to petrodiesel in more applications than you may think.

Biodiesel has some very interesting properties. While not as energy dense as common petroleum diesel, it is a much cleaner fuel with lower sulfur, and it burns cleaner leaving the atmosphere less harmed. Biodiesel even cleans engines which have been run on petroleum diesel from the inside, dissolving deposits of gunk and particulates that originated in typical petroleum fuel. Biodiesel's main lure is the fact that in theory we could supply the world's energy needs from one safe clean alternative fuel that is 100% renewable.

As for applications, biodiesel can be utilized in most locomotives that you are already aware of, with little or no changes to the engine. This means that if you have a vehicle that runs presently on diesel-be it a sport utility vehicle, station wagon, car, or tractor trailer truck-it can run on biodiesel with only one step. That step is filling the tank! This is the primary reason why biodiesel could revolutionize the fuel industry. With biodiesel, there is no need to upgrade our present fleets of trucks, cars, trains, vans, and boats that run on diesel into prohibitively expensive solar powered vehicles; we can simply pull them into a gas station that offers biodiesel and fuel up. It is true that any engine built for diesel can run on biodiesel, the only issue that could come up is with engines that were built before 1992. Many of these engines have rubber parts that would slowly be dissolved by biodiesel. But the modifications required can be done in a few minutes by any mechanic. Also, other than transportation most diesel generators as well as heaters can be run on biodiesel without modifications. This means that we can generate electricity using this exciting new renewable fuel. There was even a test flight in early 2008 of a jumbo jet run only on biodiesel. The potential of biodiesel to revolutionize our energy industry is enormous, not to mention the economic opportunities for farming nations that depend on the agricultural industry to survive. Many of these nations have begun to plant many acres of oil rich crops that are then sold to make biodiesel all over the world. The real opportunity for biodiesel to save our energy dependent society lies in algae. Algae has proven to be capable of a higher yield per acre of biodiesel convertible oil than any other plant. With time and effective engineering of an efficient algae farming method, we will be able to utilize the solar energy more efficiently than ever, and we will easily be able to answer the worlds energy needs with biodiesel.

You know a bit more than you did about biodiesel. Biodiesel may not be the holy grail of energy sources, but it comes pretty close in these times of oil wars and a rapidly depleted ozone layer. Perhaps you should look into biodiesel as your personal alternative fuel today. The more informed we are as a society, the brighter the future may be for our children. Biodiesel is not the fuel of tomorrow, I dare to say it is the fuel of today. Cleaner, renewable, convenient, and available; biodiesel may be a turning point in the world's energy resources.

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Find used cars, fast cars, and hybrid cars at VehicleRide.com.

Biodiesel : a Good Choice by Joseph Then

You should not be a stranger to this word today: Biodiesel. If you are trying to find out what it is and its benefit, mostly likely you have been told that it is a great alternative fuel. They are right. In fact, many people may have told you how great it is and how you should switch today.

Is it too much of a hype? Well, it can be overwhelming and hard to get past the hype and see what biodiesel is all about. However, learning as much as possible is important. You want to protect your investment and not just use any old fuel in your vehicle. You want to be sure biodiesel really is a good choice and not just take the word of some people you don't know.

Problems with Current Options

Biodiesel fuel is already sold on the market. That is mostly because the good in biodiesel fuel is obvious. However there are other alternative sold on the market as well. So, why is biodiesel the best choice?

Biodiesel is often blended with regular diesel so that it runs smoothly in your vehicle. You will rarely, when using a blend, have any issues to your vehicle adjusting to the new fuel.

Biodiesel is clean and safe too. It far out weighs regular diesel in this aspect. Any of the other fuels are safe and clean, as well.

Biodiesel has something great going for it in that its byproduct, glycerin, is useable. Most byproducts become waste. With biodiesel, though, the glycerin can be used to make soaps and other products.

The sources for getting the materials to make biodiesel are renewable and readily available. They can be found year round and getting the materials is not difficult at all. This means in the long run, once biodiesel goes mainstream, that it will be very cheap compared to other fuels, which may be more costly to make.

Biodiesel is a wonderful source of altenative fuel and it can also be used in many ways. First, it can be used in almost any diesel-based engine. Biodiesel can also be used in heating, which makes it not only an ideal replacement for diesel fuel but also electricity and other possible energy sources used in heating.

Biodiesel has a number of benefits that make it the perfect fuel for many people. You can see why so many people love this alternative fuel.

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You can make Biodiesel at home today by visiting our website at http://www.biodieselathome.net

Biofuel Renewable Energy Resource by Fabricio

Biofuels are moving fuels like ethanol and biodiesel is a diesel that is finished from biomass resources. These fuels are generally merged with the petroleum fuels - gasoline and diesel fuel. They can also be used individually as well. Using ethanol or biodiesel facilitates lesser burning than fossil fuel. However, ethanol and biodiesel are unfortunately, more expensive than the fossil fuels. Nevertheless, they are uncontaminated fuels, producing smaller quantity of air pollutants and are safer and greener to the environment.

Ethanol is an alcoholic fuel prepared from the sugars found in grains, such as corn, sorghum, and wheat, along with potato skins, rice, sugarcane, sugar beets, and yard clippings. Biodiesel is prepared from vegetable oils, fats, or greases. Biodiesel fuels can be used in diesel engines not including any changes in them. It is the best ever budding substitute petroleum in countries such as United States. Biodiesel is a renewable source of energy and thus is safe, recyclable, and decreases the release of the majority air toxins. It is no doubt an eco-friendly version of diesel.

It is frequently asserted that biofuels are carbon-neutral as they release CO2 when burnt that was previously present in the atmosphere. There is a considerable CO2 discharge from the refinery and distillery processes required to make biodiesel or bioethanol, as well as for transport, the use of ranch machinery, and manure production. Biodiesel, in particular, is connected to high releases of the powerful and long-term greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, released by microbes when nitrogen fertilizers are applied to soils, and also throughout the manufacture of nitrogen fertilizers.

There are two main types of biofuels for transport:

Bioethanol, which is an alcohol derivative of sugar or starch, for example from sugar beet, cane or from corn, and

Biodiesel, derivative of vegetable oils, for example from rapeseed oil, jatropha, soy or palm oil.

United States is the world's biggest bioethanol manufacturer, and this books for 99% of their biofuel for road transport. The region is, as of yet, the world's chief biodiesel creator, and prefer biodiesel than bioethanol. It is discovered that ethanol has preferably less greenhouse gas releases than petrol.

Among the biofuel crops grown in Europe and the US, biodiesel is usually measured to be more energy competent than bioethanol. A few biodiesel crops, such as oilseed rape are developed with huge magnitude of fertilizers, which compensate for a lot of the greenhouse gas reserves.

To learn much more about the different types of renewable energy sources, visit http://renewable-energy-sources-info.blogspot.com/ where you'll find this and mucho more, including biodiesel, biofuel, Bioethanol, biomass,geothermal and many more renewable energy sources

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Currently caught in a fight in trying to expose alternative and clean enegy resources to the citizens of my local town. This passionate fight leads me to be found either writing small pieces of articles on the local neighborhood magazine to aware citizens of responsibilities and actions that can be taken or trying to write articles online to aware the world about their responsibilities in this matter.

A Cleaner Environment With Alternative Fuel Cars by GARKO NOVIS

Considering the truth that many of the fuel sources available across the globe are limited and that the consumption of fuel is at all time highs, it is that much more urgent for experts to start designing more and more vehicles which operate on 'alternative fuel'. Gas prices are going up higher and faster thanever before. If this trend keeps on going, a day will emerge when we would be left with no oil in the world. The possible solutions offered by hybrid vehicles is attracting the interest of international car and truck manufacturers. These vehicles don't use fossil based fuels like oil and diesel for propulsion. Another example of this kind of automobile which made its way to the consumer markets years ago is the car that runs on electricity. Many nations across the globe have begun to replace their diesel and petrol fueled vehicles with hybrid vehicles. This as a result of the increasing awareness of greater numbers of people of the need for environment preservation and energy conservation. And so automobiles that utilize alternate fuels are increasingly popular worldwide. Bio-diesel is one alternative fuel that is available to be used to run automobiles as well as larger vehicles. These new cleaner and saner fuels have many benefits over traditional energy sources such as petrol and diesel. Green car manufacturing is now occurring internationally by automotive companies. Cars which utilize solar cells, biodiesel or electricity are called green cars. These green cars will take on more and more of the market, especially where people everywhere are worried about smog, climate change and worsening pollution. Tests have shown that these green cars or environmentally friendly vehicles have better MPG and consume smaller quantities of cleaner fuel than traditional automobiles which are powered by diesel or gas. It is a fact that at the current time energy alternative fuel vehicles are more expensive, but that is a situation that will be remedied if many folks start purchasing these vehicles. Keep in mind that green cars or alternative fuel vehicles have no toxic emissions whatsoever. These vehicles safeguard the environment. Air pollution is found to cause a number of respiratory diseases. Harmful gases from car emissions can also cause infections, allergic conditions and many other diseases. Ultimately, the best solution right now in all aspects is Water4Gas. If the Water4Gas influence on your engine can help it twice the amount of fuel and waste much less pollutants due to a cleaner burn ... that's a great benefit! Another benefit is reduced engine temperature �" it safeguards your environment and your car or truck's engine . You will experience a smoother, quieter and much smoother engine & gearshifts. and more... WATER4GAS is providing information at a low price which consumers can use at home to create a small device which instills hydrogen into the fuel/air mixture that their vehicle runs on. The process makes smaller particles out of the ones that the system burns as fuel. Because of the smaller size the engine is able to use a lot more of it. With WATER4GAS you can reasonably expect to increase your fuel economy by 30-50% or significantly more. Those molecules "musta" been pretty "blankin'" big in some engines before. But with W4G they are made usable so you can increase your fuel economy. It also helps make emissions significantly cleaner. This package of info has been purchased by over 9000 car owners already and happy members number about 99%! So how about you?

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Find out how simple Water4Gas really is! A water powered car is now reality and is one of the best ways to improve gas mileage

Can Shell Convert Algae Into Fuel? by GARKO

Shell hopes to construct a facility producing biodiesel from algae within the next two years, pursuant to yesterday's launch of a joint venture to start a research project in Hawaii. The partnership with Hawaii-based Biopetroleum, will initially build a small research plant but expects to increase to a full-throttle commercial facility of 20,000 hectares. A Shell spokesperson said it expected yields of approximately sixty tonnes of oil per hectare a year, meaning a full-scale complex would generate 1.2m tons of fuel annually. The two corporations did not disclose how large the initial investment was, but Shell has confirmed that they will own the majority of the company, called Cellana. Shell has not participated in production of the first wave of biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel from vegetable oil, focusing on second-generation fuel sources that can be produced from non-food plants or plant waste. It has cited that government subsidies for biofuels should provide greater incentives to second-generation products for the reason that they can be expected to demonstrate much better environmental performance, especially in cutting carbon dioxide emissions. Graeme Sweeney, Shell's head of future fuels, suggested that biodiesel from algae is going to need such support to be viable. He said: "The issue in our project is that we are here investing in developing sustainable routes to biofuel with a low-carbon footprint." As a biofuel product, algae has benefits over traditional crops. It occupies less space and can be grown in salt water, which solves the problem of too much demand from agricultural land and fresh water, which has been among the most difficult problems experienced by first-generation biofuels activities. It also has higher yields. Shell announced its "conservative" estimate of an annual fuel output of sixty tonnes per hectare was FIFTEEN times the four tonnes a year possible with jatropha, a biofuel crop being pioneered by D1 Oils in partnership with BP. But Mr Sweeney admitted there was a long road ahead of Cellana to substantiate the commercial viability of the venture. What I have to say about this is... go to it guys, I hope it does work out and more power to you, (even though you already possess all the power in the world). But while you are off scraping algae off the Ocean bottom, I will keep on working with Water4Gas WATER4GAS is sharing information for a nominal fee which individuals can use in their garage or wherever to create a small device which infuses hydrogen into the gas/air mixture that their vehicle runs on. The process makes bite sized particles out of the particles that the engine burns as fuel. So the system is able to use much more of it. By doing this you can minimumly expect to lower your gasoline usage by thirty to fifty percent or even more. Those goblets "musta" been pretty "blankin'" huge in some engines before. But with WATER4GAS they are made usable so you can lower your gasoline usage. It also helps make emissions substantially cleaner. This information has been purchased by over NINE THOUSAND people already and the percentage of happy customers is about 99%! So how about you?

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Learn how to increase power and save gas and how to run a car on hydrogen from water which is the best of the ways to reduce your gas consumption