Tagged: biofuel

Photo of the week: running your car on beer, sort of

The New Zealanders just found the perfect excuse to drink a few more beers in the bar. Beer brewer DB Breweries teamed up with bio-fuel producer Gull to produce what they claim to be the first commercial gasoline made from a beer by-product. They gave it the apt name Brewtrolium. It’s a mixture of 90% 98-octane gasoline and 10% bio-ethanol distilled from yeast left-overs. “We’re helping Kiwis save the world by doing what they enjoy best—drinking beer,” DB breweries spokesperson Sean O’Donnell told the NZ Herald.

Compatible with most modern cars that run on 98-gasoline, Brewtrolium is more sustainable than classic gasoline. The ethanol part is renewable — just keep drinking guys! — and DB Breweries claims a reduction in greenhouse gases with 8% because of a more efficient burning of the bio-fuel. When using 30 liters of Brewtrolium every week, it saves up to 250 kg of carbon dioxide a year in comparison with a traditional fuel. Until now, yeast left-overs were usually used for animal food or went to landfill.

DB Breweries teamed up with bio-fuel producer Gull to create the world's first fuel running on a beer by-product (photo: DB Export)

DB Breweries teamed up with bio-fuel producer Gull to create the world’s first fuel based on a beer by-product (photo: DB Export)

According to DB Breweries, everyone can now save the world by drinking beer. But is Brewtrolium really going to make a difference? The product in itself probably not. But the tendency of using left-overs for bio-fuel production is a good one, since until now often corn is used as base product. And corn can better be used to feed people than cars, right? That being said, it’s still way better to stop burning fuels altogether.

Sources

Gull
Digital Trends
DB Breweries

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Photo of the week: Rabbit gut microbes to clean up steel production?

If ArcellorMittal's pilot project to turn CO into bio-ethanol turns out economiccaly viable, it will apply the technology in all its steel production plants, such as this one in Bremen (photo: JesterRaiin)

Steel is still the most important engineering material, with a yearly production of around 1,7 billion tonnes. Unfortunately, the process to produce steel starting from iron ore is heavily polluting the atmosphere. Both CO and CO2 are produced, with the first one often burned to produce CO2 as well. When you do the math, you find that for each ton of steel, roughly two tonnes of carbon dioxide are emitted. The contribution of the steel industry to the global CO2 emissions is estimated to be around 5%.

Reason enough to investigate the possibilty of reducing the footprint, thought bioengineering company LanzaTech. They developed the Clostridium microbe based on rabbit gut microbes, to capture carbon monoxide and converting it to ethanol.  “What we are talking about is turning an environmental liability into a financial opportunity,” said Jennifer Holmgren, chief executive of LanzaTech. The ethanol can be used to fuel cars and airplanes. ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steel producer, is about to start a pilot project in their production faciliy in Ghent, Belgium to test out the technology. When completed in 2018, the facility will produce up to 47 000 tonnes of ethanol. It’s estimated that for every ton of ethanol, carbon dioxide emissions are reduced by 2.3 tonnes. When the conversion process proves to be economiccaly viable, the company will roll out the technology in all her facilities over the world.

If ArcellorMittal's pilot project to turn CO into bio-ethanol turns out economiccaly viable, it will apply the technology in all its steel production plants, such as this one in Bremen (photo: JesterRaiin)

If ArcelorMittal’s pilot project to turn CO into bio-ethanol turns out to be economically viable, the company will apply the technology in all its steel production plants, such as this one in Bremen (photo: JesterRaiin)

Sources
LanzaTech
TheGuardian
MIT

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Photo of the week: Dubai fell in love with a new kind of oil

Yes, we all now the United Arab Emirates love oil. Dubai is not different. Or is it? Recently it let fall its eye on another kind of oil: waste cooking oil. This February, Neutral Fuels LLC made a deal with the municipality to deliver 100% bio-fuel for the municipality vehicles. Waste cooking oil is treated to be used in vehicles without any changes to the engines and it will cost no more than conventional diesel. Using biofuels made from waste oil results in a lower carbon footprint of driving the vehicles. For Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, it is one way to reach his own ambitious plans to make Dubai a sustainable city. Yet, it is not the ideal solution. If they want truly sustainable transportation, they better rethink the transportation system drastically instead of feeding their cars with just another type of oil.

Neutral fuels LLC made a deal to replace diesel with its biofuel based on waste oil in the municipality vehicles (photo: automiddleeast.com)

Neutral fuels LLC made a deal to replace diesel with its biofuel based on waste oil in the municipality vehicles (photo: automiddleeast.com)

Source:

BusinessInsider

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