Bio Fuels

Every year, nearly 30 billion barrels of crude oil are consumed! This averages out to around 82 million barrels each day. The reason this number is so high is because currently, crude oil is the best way to move transport vehicles. It is used in trains, ships, construction vehicles, cars, lawn equipment and many other things. The nice thing about oil is there is a lot of energy potential in a small amount of space. Unfortunately, our increased demand for oil is draining the oil reserves dry and is taking a tole on the environment with all the green house gasses being released. One solution to this problem would be to switch gas powered motors to electric powered motors which will then eliminate the need for fossil fuels. The biggest problem with this is electric powered engines are no where near as powerful as gas and diesel powered engines are. So the semi trucks, planes, trains and ships we rely on to bring in all our goods would not be able to function properly. Another problem with electric powered engines is they require extremely large batteries to go long distances. These batteries are very expensive to make and would most likely be worse for the environment in the creation and recycling of the batteries then the continued use of crude oil would be. Fortunately there is a solution to this problem that is both environmentally conscious and economical. The answer is bio fuels. Bio fuel uses a specialized form of algae that has been designed to consume sunlight and carbon dioxide and create a bi-product that can be separated into gas, diesel and jet fuel.  This is done by placing a small amount of algae into a tank and exposing it to sunlight. The tank can be connected to an exhaust line from a power plant to absorb the CO2 created, or it can be left open to absorb CO2 in the air. The process is slow at first, but once the batch of algae begins to grow, they begin to multiply very quickly. When the batch of algae is fully grown, it is then separated from the water that it was grown in and broken down into gas, diesel and jet fuel which can be used almost immediately. Another nice thing about bio fuel is it is cheap to produce. Because sunlight and carbon dioxide are free the only thing that need to be paid for is the equipment, labor and power needed to run the facility. Overall, bio fuels are a good solution to reduce the amount of fossil fuels being consumed year round. If you have any questions, please comment below. Thanks for reading!