Monday, March 19, 2007

Ethanol as Fuel Substitute for Electricity Generation by Engr Elizabeth R. Rivera, Jonathan Lagman, Regino Padilla, Paul Sotalbo and Rochelle Erfe

ABSTRACT:
When Henry Ford, an automotive inventor, told a US newspaper report last 1925, that ethyl alcohol was the "Fuel of the Future, " he was expressing an opinion that was widely and equally shared in the automotive industry. He said, "there is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter like corn, sugarcane and apples, that can be fermented. There’s enough alcohol in one year’s yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for hundred years." (Kovarick, 1998).Also, in 1925, the American farms were encountering an economic crisis that later on intensify with depression to rural people that resulted to urbanization.
Most automobiles employ the 4-stroke operation of the engine cycle. A major engineering concern is to control the burning of the gasoline-air mixture inside each cylinder to obtain a smooth expansion of the gas mixture. If the mixture burns too rapidly, the piston receives a hard jerk rather than a smooth, strong push. This action produces a "knocking" or "pinging sound," as well as a decrease in the efficiency in the conversion of combustion energy to mechanical energy. Gasoline is usually rated according to the octane number. (a measure of their tendency to cause knocking). The higher the octane number of a hydrocarbon, the better is its performance in the internal combustion engine. The octane rating of hydrocarbons can be improved by the addition of small quantities of substance called anti-knocking agent. Among the most widely used anti-knocking agents are organic compounds of lead like tetra ethyl lead. However, lead is a highly toxic metal and the constant discharge of automobile exhausts has become a serious environmental problem. Federal regulations of U.S. require that all automobiles made after 1974 use "unleaded" gasoline. To minimize knocking and increase the oxygen content of gasoline, they added the methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE). Unfortunately, in the late 1990, MTBE, which is a cancerous substance, was found in drinking water. This is due to leaking gasoline storage tanks. With this, to begin to phase out the use of MTBE and no substitute has been found. Fuel ethanol or anhydrous alcohol is produced by dehydration of rectified spirit or extra neutral alcohol. Blending ethanol with petroleum for a motor vehicle is called fuel ethanol. ( C2H5OH ) has, apart from carbon and hydrogen, oxygen in it. This oxygen acts as oxygenating agent during combustion in the internal combustion engine of petroleum vehicles. This prevent the formation of a poisonous carbon monoxide (CO) gas and minimize the knocking of the engine because the oxygen in the ethanol helps to control the burning of gasoline-air mixture in the engine, thus resulting to smooth expansion of the gas mixture. This will also minimize the amount of unburned fuel in the gas exhaust. Fuel ethanol technology offers an attractive combination of highly efficient fuel utilization and environmentally-friendly operations. The fuel ethanol systems could be an accessible and attractive alternative to conventional electricity generation. The intensified research and development in the field of fuel ethanol technology particularly in recent times, are the basis for the present status report, which inquires into the technical and economic aspects of how fuel ethanol systems presently available can be used in stationary application. An ethanol fuel system can convert the chemical energy of fuel directly into electricity. Ethanol fuel produce electricity by an electrochemical process.
It increases combustion efficiency since alcohol such as ethanol burn more completely,
It reduces the emission of toxic air pollutants such as carbon monoxide (CO) and unburned fuel to the environment. Mixing alcohol with gasoline tends to increase the octane rating and increases the efficiency of automotive engine. It advances the technology through the equipment used in ethanol plant and in the modification of automobile engine. Due to the differences in the nature of ethanol and gasoline, under certain conditions, alcohol such as ethanol may separate from the gasoline-ethanol fuel mixture, thus making the combustion of fuel ethanol ineffective. It increase the country’s energy security, resulting to a more stable economy It rises job creation especially in rural community It means more business opportunity In the long run, it generates more income for local government in terms of taxes and through the trading of its by-products and extract such as animal feeds. Since we have rich natural resources, so we have the capacity to produce abundantly the raw material of ethanol production. With this we have the high potential in the world market. We have the world as our market. At the occurrence of the higher ethanol production, the Philippines might consider the exportation of ethanol, which may alleviate our economy. The reduction of petroleum imports lowers the government income generation through taxes in petroleum usage. The improper planning and implementation of using fuel ethanol may resort to the importation of ethanol and its cognate products such as sugar from other countries, which will defeat government effort to achieve energy independence. Automotive utilization of fuel ethanol is considered to be a great project. It should be done in a large basis and based on the availability of a vehicle for the experimentation of different ratio of ethanol and gasoline combination.