Fill 'er up with fruit juice: fructose-derived biofuel better than ethanol
You can make ethanol out of just about any plant-based material (some, of course, is much easier to convert than others). But why not try to make 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) instead of ethanol? It doesn't roll off the tongue as simply, but it does contain more energy - 40 percent more - than ethanol.Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have a paper in the article in today's Nature about making the higher-energy liquid-transportation fuel from, basically, fruit juice.
The two-stage process is the work of chemical and biological engineering Professor James Dumesic and his research team. Using acid and copper catalysts, salt and butanol solvents
In a UWM press release, Dumesic explains ethanol's shortcomings: "Ethanol suffers from several limitations. It has relatively low energy density, evaporates readily, and can become contaminated by absorption of water from the atmosphere. It also requires an energy-intensive distillation process to separate the fuel from water."
DMF, by comparison, is not soluble in water, can be stored stably and uses just one-third of the energy in the evaporation process compared to ethanol produced by fermentation. This fruit-juice biofuel is not exactly ready for the highway quite yet, and Dumesic says there is more research to be done, but if Daryl Hannah wants to keep drinking biofuels, perhaps she'll like the sweeter variety.
[Source: University of Wisconsin / James Beal via Australian Car Advice]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Health Nut 5:16PM (5/01/2008)
Why not consider another source like water? Any car engine can be properly modified to run on water if done right.
George
http://www.acai.vg
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Drew 5:04PM (6/21/2007)
Brazil's transition to bio-fuels generated a lot of pro-ethanol press. Brazil is a Third World country, but the process took three decades. Brazilians were already fixed on small economy cars and not suffering from the energy consumption in the United States. (Not to mention Brazil's smaller population and much smaller number of drivers.)
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jeremie 5:28PM (6/21/2007)
I always wanted to run my car on strawberries.
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charlie 12:02PM (6/22/2007)
"In a UWM press release"
"UWM" always refers to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. For UW-Madison, its just UW.
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GreyFlcn 12:55PM (6/23/2007)
A reply on DMF from R-Squared Blog:
"DMF??? WTF? Paint stripper? (I couldn't resist.) Dimethylformamide would not be on my list of possible fuel replacements. Just a couple of wee technical problems with it:
1) Toxicity - it is believed to cause birth defects and could be a carcinogen
2) Known plastic solvent - DMF is used in the production of plastics and acrylic fibers. DMF won't play nice with all the plastic and rubber in the average car's fuel system.
3) Emissions - using DMF as fuel produces NOX as a byproduct of burning the fuel itself (instead of converting elemental nitrogen to NOX from the heat of the engine). This would greatly increase the grams of NOX per mile.
4) Reactivity - DMF is not stable in the presence of either strong acids or bases. It is highly reactive with certain componds, including NaH, which can produce a runaway exothermic reaction.
Other than that, it sounds great."
http://i-r-squared.blogspot.com/2007/06/problem-with-biobutanol.html#1042353776673943546
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On top of which, it requires Butanol
Which is also a boondoggle.
http://i-r-squared.blogspot.com/2007/06/problem-with-biobutanol.html
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