Development solutions for threats to biodiversity
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Solution: Liquid Biofuel[]

Overview[]

Liquid biofuel is usually bioalcohol such as ethanol and biodiesel and virgin vegetable oils. Biodiesel can be used in modern diesel vehicles with little or no modification to the engine and can be obtained from waste and virgin vegetable and animal oil and fats (lipids). Virgin vegetable oils can be used in modified diesel engines. In fact the Diesel engine was originally designed to run on vegetable oil rather than fossil fuel. A major benefit of biodiesel is lower emissions. The use of biodiesel reduces emission of carbon monoxide and other hydrocarbons by 20 to 40 percent. In some areas corn, sugarbeets, cane and grasses are grown specifically to produce ethanol (also known as alcohol) a liquid which can be used in internal combustion engines and fuel cells. Ethanol is being phased into the current energy infrastructure. E85 is a fuel composed of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline that is currently being sold to consumers.

The EU plans to add 5% bioethanol to Europe's petrol by 2010. For the UK alone the production would require 12,000 square kilometres of the country's 65,000 square kilometres of arable land assuming that no biofuels are created using waste produces from other agriculture. The supermarket chain Tesco has started adding the 5% bioethanol to the petrol it sells as of January 2006.

In the future, there might be bio-synthetic liquid fuel available. It can be produced by Fishcer-Tropsch processes, also called Biomass-To-Liquids (BTL).

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy)


Threats Addressed[]

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Pros[]

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Cons[]

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Products[]

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Resources[]

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