2012-05-25 02:40:57
As humanity grows, energy needs and problems increase. It is not that past times were better, the harsh reality is that now there are many more of us, there are more people who live better than ever in history (others do not) and we value the importance of our problems with another yardstick. What no one can deny is that the future poses great challenges that, at least for now, we are not prepared to solve. Just to mention a couple of them, one is the search for sustainable sources of energy and another is the control of the enormous amounts of garbage that we generate in our crazy existence. Of course, there are no magic formulas and, if someone argues that there are, they certainly don’t work for everyone.
It is difficult to imagine that future energy needs will be resolved with a single source; everything indicates that, as now, there will be several options that will be added to solve the problem. Among these options, the use of biomass energy is an interesting possibility for several reasons, because it provides energy that is within our reach, technologically speaking, because it does not contribute significantly to the increase in greenhouse gases and because it offers the possibility of reducing the abundant load of waste with which we are contaminating the planet.
Of course, biomass energy is not a panacea. Like everything in this life, its usefulness depends on how it is used and the technology that we are capable of developing. Biomass energy is energy obtained from organic matter generated by living beings. If you make a bonfire with dry branches to heat yourself, you are using energy from biomass and the same thing happens if, to give other examples, we manage to recycle the plant waste produced in agriculture, if we manage to collect the oil used in culinary tasks. and the animal remains that are generated by thousands of tons in the meat industries and we convert them into an easy-to-use fuel. In this way we will be achieving three important advances: reducing pollution, generating energy and avoiding the use of other sources, such as oil, which contribute to increasing environmental pollution and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. If we do it like this, perfect.
Now, if to obtain the raw material with which a biofuel is manufactured we savagely deforest the planet or allocate an area that we need to plant species that serve as food to the production of high-energy plants, we will be in bad shape.
In both cases it is biomass energy that is obtained but, as you see, the knife itself is neither good nor bad, it depends on who handles it.
Having made the previous reservations, and since the situation is not one to delve into sadness, let’s imagine that we are “as we should be” and we use biomass as we should. In that case, in addition to the raw material, that is, biomass, we will need to develop technologies that allow us to extract the energy it contains from it in a way that is useful and profitable for us. Naturally, no one is aware that, in these times, by lighting bonfires we cannot make the combustion engines of our vehicles or the machines in factories work, but the technology already exists that allows us to convert biomass into fuel and, thanks In addition, we have a good number of so-called biofuels, such as biodiesel, bioalcohol.
Now, biofuels can be obtained from very diverse raw materials, it is not the same to obtain biodiesel from surplus agricultural waste from wine production, that is, the remains of seeds and skin of the grape, as it is to make it. from sunflower seeds, sawdust from furniture factories or animal fats from meat industries. These differences mean that, once created, its behavior must be studied in specialized laboratories. Before distributing it for consumption, it is necessary to check if it can be used without problems in engines, measure its energy power and compare it with that of other fossil fuels, determine if they produce more or less polluting particles and carbon products, etc.
At the University of Castilla-La Mancha there are centers where these things are researched. One of these centers is in the ETS of Industrial Engineers of Ciudad Real. There, a team of researchers who form the UCLM Fuels and Engines Group studies the combustion processes and the characterization of polluting emissions in alternative internal combustion engines, mainly diesel. Today in “Talking with Scientists” we talk with Juan José Hernández Adrover, Professor at the University of Thermal Machines and Engines Area. We invite you to listen to it.
More information:
UCLM Thermal Machines and Motors Area
Combustion characterizations of producer gas from biomass gasification.
Authors: Hernández, JJ; Barba, J.; Aranda, G.
Global Nest Journal, (Accepted), year 2012, Global Nest.
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