Plasma gasification can reduce massive amounts of solid waste and biomass to a syngas and a small amount of slag. The slag can be used for making abrasives, sandpaper, roadfill, even brick.
What happens next to all the syngas created by this clean, closed-loop conversion process? Well, it depends. Syngas can be fed directly to gas-fired turbines to generate electricity. However, generating electricity is not considered the highest, best use of the energy potential in syngas because most big power plants use coal, or hydroelectric, and sometimes natural gas. It’s hard to compete in commodity electricity markets where size matters most.
Besides, who wants to make electricity when they could be making what the world really needs: clean, green energy for transportation fuels!
So what’s the best kind of green next-gen biofuel? Great question, isn’t it?
But first, let’s look at what clearly isn’t the best kind of alcohol fuel: Ethanol
The most common single alcohol type from syngas and other thermal, fermentation and enzymatic conversion processes is Ethanol, or C2H5OH. According to the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, there are 110 ethanol plants running in the U.S., with 73 more under construction.
Not only is ethanol proving to be a dud as a fuel substitute but there is increasing evidence that it is destroying engines in large numbers
In its quest to reduce its reliance on expensive imported oil, the U.S. will soon consume half its domestic corn crop for fuel production, though economic benefits have yet to materialize. Here’s why! Ethanol produces one-third less energy than a gallon of gasoline at an average wholesale cost of 33 percent more, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office study.
This much is clear already: We can’t grow our way to energy independence.
Even if every bushel of U.S. corn, wheat, rice and soybean were used to produce ethanol, it would only cover about 4 percent of U.S. energy needs on a net basis.
- Charles Washburn, professor emeritus at California State University in Flagstaff, Arizona
Those who bet exclusively on ethanol will suffer the same fate as those investors who took the plunge on fiber-optic, Internet and computer-router companies in the late 1990s. They will concentrate their risk when prices are at a peak—and then get burned.
Source: Forget the Ethanol Myth – Avoid Biofuel Bubble
So what’s really going to be next in biofuels? It’s called ENVIROLENE. It’s Higher Mixed Alcohol fuel made from any carbon-based feedstock.
