Over the past couple of decades, extensive research has been conducted on the creation of alternative fuel options. One segment of the alternative fuel market that has been gaining popularity recently is biofuel. Biofuels are considered to be any liquid fuel that originates from renewable plant materials. Unlike gasoline that is refined from limited crude oil supplies, biofuel can be created from a number of plentiful organic sources. Some say that this prospect is too good to be true and the technology has been hotly debated.

One of the first major breakthroughs in biofuel technology was developed using corn and wheat products. This created controversy amongst many different circles in the scientific community. Critics have claimed that crops that are used in the production of food should not be turned in to fuel because of the potential damage it could cause on the food supply. Researchers have since focused more on creating fuels derived from plants that typically have no real value in other industries.

Most biofuel studies in the United States are now being conducted using switchgrass and Miscanthus giganteus. These perennial grasses can grow rapidly in a large variety of climates and don’t require extremely fertile soil conditions. Despite avoiding the use of edible materials, the latest controversy stems from determining where massive quantities of these plants can be grown. It will require very large farm areas in order to provide a significant portion of the world’s fuel supply. Many people fear that large areas of forest may be cut down to accommodate growth of biofuel materials.

Harvesting crops and converting them to useable fuel also has an adverse effect on the surrounding environment. Since most biofuels burn similarly to the fossil fuels that are currently in use, the question of how to curb vehicle emissions still looms.

Biofuels are becoming extremely attractive to developing nations that are currently restricted by the high price of oil. Cambodia, for example, relies entirely on expensive imported fuel to provide its people with electricity. Sometimes the supply is inconsistent and is often considered one of the major factors that restrict the country’s economic development. The jatropha plant that is native to Cambodia may be the answer to all of their woes. This plant is plentiful throughout the area and can easily be harvested by local communities. It can be converted into biofuel that would provide the country with its own sustainable power source. Researchers claim that Cambodia is one of the largest regions in the world would immediately benefit from implementing biofuel technologies.

E. B. Chuong writes articles about recreational vehicles, and outdoor activities. Are you still looking for a good price on Shoei Helmets? It’s no secret Shoei is a popular helmet. Check out our top selling Shoei Multitec helmets today.

By E. B. Chuong

Since fossil fuel was invented and combustion engine was firstly created by Nikolaus August Otto in 1876, it can be said that human beings can not live without a vehicle, especially powered by fossil fuel such as diesel fuel and gasoline. Leave the fossil fuel was just a phrase to leave at home while they go to workplace or a vacation by vehicles.

However, this way of thinking about it changes much when the oil producer on middle east like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar, also the producer from Latin such as Venezuela announced that the oil reserve in this planet is extremely reduced. There was a panic situation that caused a rush in buying fuels and pile them up as much as possible. People are afraid of running out of gas for their vehicles. They do not care that there is a more important issue that can threat them to death, that is the global warming. This planet temperature goes up at least 1 degree Celsius every year, and the ice on the north and south pole are melting.

Leave the fossil fuel is now a phrase that must get attention. This phrase is just like a mission to act for the lasting of mother earth. Nowadays we can see that car manufacturers are now in a race to produce the most efficient fuel consumption vehicle to ride or to drive, one of them is to use water as the substitution for fossil fuel. Maybe it sounds terrible especially for the way it works in a combustion engine that needs gasoline that comes from fossil fuel, but by the advanced technology human invented, everything impossible is now possible to do. It is true that you do not have to fill your fuel tank with water, because this kind of technology is just like a hybrid car that combines gasoline usage with the electric machine powered by battery. It is the combination of water, catalyst and currents that make a hydrogen gas to enhance your car performance and reduce the fuel consumption extremely. Anyway, let’s hope that human effort to reduce the use of fossil fuel can obtain maximum result so we still can have our green planet. Maybe we can not leave all behind, but someday we will do it.

By Joe A.

Coal is the most abundant of the three fossil fuels and is now used (burnt) mostly for electricity generation. In fact, the US has more coal that can be mined than the rest of the world has oil that can be pumped out of the ground. For millennia, fire from wood burning allowed humans to have light and heat without the sun. Then in the 17th century, coal was fully discovered and found to burn hotter and cleaner than wood charcoal. It was not until the industrial revolution of the 1800s that its potential was realized. Coal was then burnt in steam engines, powering trains and ships, and replaced the fuel used in steel plants.

Natural gas is color-less, shapeless and odorless, and is the cleanest of the fossil fuels. Gas companies add a chemical to it that makes it smell like rotten eggs so that it is easy to detect leaks. Natural gas is burnt in domestic gas hobs to provide heat for cooking and in boilers to warm buildings. If the current natural gas pipeline network of the US was laid end-to-end, it would stretch to the moon and back, twice.

Oil is mainly used in transport; cars, planes, ships and trains all require oil as fuel. Oil and natural gas were only discovered in the 20th century, and are therefore seen as recent fossil fuels when compared to coal.

Whether heating our homes, cooking our food, watching our televisions or driving our cars, we are consuming resources that took hundreds of millions of years to form, and we are consuming them to depletion within hundreds of years. Fossil fuels have, without doubt, released us from the burdens of much manual labor, enabled long-distance travel in a matter of days and advanced civilization as we know it today, but they will run out, maybe in the next generation, maybe in the one after – not to mention the effects of their emissions when burnt. Either way, we will need a lot of changes in our energy mix to sustain our way of life, let alone sustain the improvements in the standard of living of billions of people in the developing world.

For more information and insight into climate change, carbon offsets and energy – or to read more about the world’s diverse energy resources visit our no nonsense climate site here: http://hotclimate.wikidot.com

By Ben Beiny