Cellulosic Ethanol - An Advanced Ethanol Fuel that Could be the Answer to Our Global Energy Needs

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Cellulosic Ethanol - An Advanced Ethanol Fuel That Could Be the Answer to Our Global Energy Needs by Bob Randooke

We live in a society that has made it easy for us to develop very bad energy consumption habits. We have been spoiled over the last 50 years because of the fact that oil from fossil fuels is a very rich energy source, but the problem is that it is not a renewable energy source and therefore it will run out one day in the near future.

We got a little glimpse of what a shortage of oil can do to us as a nation last summer when gasoline prices went over $4.50 a gallon. Now this was just a temporary shortage. Imagine what will happen when we are close to using up the global oil supply. President Obama, has started to earmark millions of dollars towards research on alternative energies. In this article we will take a look at some alternative energies that continue to show promise.

Ethanol is a pretty good alternative energy fuel source and it is already being used in a few foreign countries. Brazil for example, powers most of the vehicles in its country of ethanol fuel and while it is a very green energy since it is made from corn and other farm sugars, it can really exhaust the global food supply really fast if we do not have ways to manufacture it on a large scale. There must be another alternative fuel source which is readily available that we really don't depend on as our main food sustenance.

Cellulosic ethanol is one of the most exciting advanced ethanol fuel sources that is being talked about globally and it is one that can potentially solve our future energy crisis. Cellulosic ethanol is an advanced type of biofuel that is made from the different parts of plants and trees that are not edible.

Cellulosic ethanol is made mainly from Lignocellulose, which makes up almost all of the mass of vegetation and it is mainly made up of three different types of cellulose. Woodchips are an example of material that can be used to make cellulosic ethanol, and it can be found all around us in abundance. When we cut our lawn and trimming trees with chips or byproducts of this, so instead of throwing these woodchips away we can use them in the future to create cellulosic ethanol. Another great benefit of this type of fuel is that it has been proven to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 85% compared to conventional gasoline fuel, and this is something that regular ethanol fuel cannot even come close to matching.

The only drawback to this alternative fuel is that it takes a lot more processing to get it to the end result of becoming an actual fuel source. If our government really get serious about this and pours in billions of dollars into this research they cut down the processing steps which will enable us to make this a readily available global alternative fuel. Let's hope the Obama administration lives up to its promise of funding these alternative fuel sources.

I love writing about alternative fuel sources such as Biofuel. You can read about the newest advances in biofuels at http://www.biofuelguide.net which is updated regularly with the newest, most exciting biofuel technologies coming out.

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