Gas from Trash Will Help Clean The Environment
One thing the world has too much of is trash. How to
dispose of the many tons of trash again and again is a major problem for
many cities. If trash could be made to serve a useful and biofriendly
purpose everyone would come out ahead. Well, that is exactly what Byogy,
a Bakersfield, California enterprise, is gearing up to do.
The company will be able to produce 95-octane gasoline from trash
(including manure, garden and landscaping waste as well as food waste)
at a cost of just $1.70 to $2.00 per gallon, without any government
subsidies or tax credits. In addition to reduced cost and lessened
dependency on foreign oil supplies, this fuel has the advantage that it
can be painlessly integrated into the existing gasoline distribution
system, without any changes to infrastructure or modifications to
vehicles on the road. "This green substitute for conventional gasoline,"
claims Daniel L Rudnick, CEO of Byogy, "is the Holy Grail of biofuels."
Licensed from the Texas A&M University, the Byogy project is being
developed in conjunction with the Texas Engineering Experiment Station
and the first plant is expected to be operational within the next two
years. This process of converting biomass directly into gasoline is
unique, as most other such projects convert biomass into alcohol, which
is then mixed in with regular gasoline. Another advantage of this
technology over the ethanol from corn process is that it concentrates on
organic waste products and other non-food biomass, so it does not
disrupt the food supply.
While, like all gasoline, this fuel produces greenhouse gases, the
biomass used for this process comes from recently grown organic matter
that absorbed those greenhouse gases from the air, so there is no net
increase. Gasoline from fossil fuels, on the other hand, is based on
vegetable matter that grew millions of years ago and therefore does add
to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Ultimately it will be preferable to replace carbon-based fuels with
clean, renewable energy sources such as geothermal, solar and wind
power, but it can be assumed that for now the world will continue to
rely on gasoline to power most of its automobiles. Therefore,
technologies that can generate fuel from waste can be considered
biofriendly, as it means a reduced dependency on dwindling fossil fuel
supplies and a lessened danger of oil spills.
Saving energy is another part of bringing about a greener, more
biofriendly environment. One company that is contributing to this cause
is Biofriendly Corporation, which has developed the Green Plus® liquid
fuel catalyst that provides a cleaner, more linear fuel burn in internal
combustion engines, resulting in fewer harmful emissions, increased
torque and better fuel economy.
For more information about Green Plus visit the Biofriendly website at
www.biofriendly.com.
About the author
Peter Verhoeff is a freelance writer who contributes articles on environmental issues for Biofriendly Corporation. More information about environmental issues can be found at http://www.biofriendly.com