ASD Libraries: G08: Sciences Synthetic Materials: Synthetic Fuel

SynGas

SynGas
syngas, in full synthetic gas, mixture of primarily hydrogen and carbon monoxide that often also contains some amount of carbon dioxide and methane and that is highly combustible. Syngas is used primarily in the production of hydrocarbon fuels, such as diesel fuel and methanol, and in the production of industrial chemicals, particularly ammonia. Syngas produced from waste materials and other biomass is considered a form of renewable energy.

Do you want biodiesel with that?
Maybe you’ve heard the story—using oil from
a fast food restaurant or local greasy spoon to run your car (and the French fry smell of the exhaust makes you hungry!) Is this for real or something cooked up by the tabloids to get your attention?

The Chemistry of Biodiesel
Differences Between Biodiesel, Diesel and Vegetable Oil. Diesel engines can burn biodiesel fuel with no modifications (except for replacing some rubber tubing that may soften with biodiesel). This is possible because biodiesel is chemically very similar to regular diesel, shown below. Notice that regular diesel also has the long chain of carbon and hydrogen atoms, but doesn’t have the ester group shown in blue above.

Green Gasoline Fuel from Plants
Another solution is to use crops and plants to make gasoline. It might be hard to imagine, but chemists can convert corn stalks, sawdust, and grasses into gasoline. They do it by breaking
down the plant molecules and reshuffling their parts into the same molecules found in gasoline.

Top 8 Synthetic Fuels
With oil and fossil fuel resources dwindling around the world, the race to find the next big energy solution is definitely on. There may not be a magic bullet to solve that energy crisis, or a perfect fuel that is infinitely available and doesn't pollute the environment. But one option, synthetic fuels -- or synfuels -- offers some advantages and some drawbacks when compared to conventional oil-based fossil fuels.
What is a synfuel?
Discussions about energy independence, renewable energy and the dangers of carbon emissions have become a huge part of the political discourse in the United States. Everyone from the president to the guy holding the "no war for oil" sign at a public protest seems interested in ways to find alternatives to fossil fuels.
Synthetic fuels could eliminate entire U.S. need for crude oil
The United States could eliminate the need for crude oil by using a combination of coal, natural gas and non-food crops to make synthetic fuel, a team of Princeton researchers has found.
Besides economic and national security benefits, the plan has potential environmental advantages. Because plants absorb carbon dioxide to grow, the United States could cut vehicle greenhouse emissions by as much as 50 percent in the next several decades using non-food crops to create liquid fuels, the researchers said.