That’s where corn based ethanol is failing and why corn is not

canada goose store The Fuel Of The Future

canada goose deals The recent run up Canada Goose sale in gasoline prices was a not too subtle reminder that there’s a limited amount of oil on Earth. Someday soon, we’re going to need a new source of fuel.

Part of the answer could be fuels made from the plant material cellulose. Researchers at the new Energy Biosciences Institute at the University of California, Berkeley are working on a recipe for this biofuel.

The institute is trying to make at least part of the economy run on fuel from vegetation. It has taken over Canada Goose Parka a lab building once used to answer the purely scientific question of how plants convert carbon dioxide into chemical energy. Now, Christopher Somerville and his colleagues hope to exploit that chemical energy by cheap canada goose uk converting cellulose into fuel.

canada goose coats Cellulose is really nothing more canada goose black friday sale than sugar molecules glucose all linked together with indigestible chemical bonds.

Canada Goose Parka “Glucose is the principal fuel of all life on the planet,” Somerville says.

The challenge is to liberate all that energy rich glucose from the cellulose. If it can be converted to simple sugar, it can either be fed to yeast, which will turn it Canada Goose online into ethanol, or it can be converted chemically into liquid fuels that could directly replace diesel and gasoline.

buy canada goose jacket cheap Converting plant cellulose into fuel could transform the economy with a less damaging alternative to fossil fuels. Fuel made from cellulose is relatively clean because the plants that it comes from actually get their carbon out of the atmosphere. canada goose uk outlet So, carbon cycles canada goose factory sale from the exhaust pipe into the air, back to the plants and then to the fuel again.

Canada Goose Jackets Somerville says researchers already know how to convert cellulose into fuel. In fact, about 20 start up companies are buy canada goose jacket cheap already making small amounts of fuel from cellulose.

“It’s not like fusion,” Somerville says, “where it really doesn’t work. This is something that works and just needs to work a bit better in order to make it compete with fossil fuels.”

Canada Goose Outlet To be Canada Goose Outlet competitive, Somerville’s institute needs to develop https://www.canadagooseoutletstore.co.uk not just a fuel but an entire industry and Canada Goose Coats On Sale the researchers want to make sure this new industry is green and socially responsible.

canada goose The Key Ingredient

canadian goose jacket The first question is what starting ingredients to use. One of the first to be tested is Miscanthus, a relative of sugar cane that looks a bit like bamboo or straw when it’s dry.

buy canada goose jacket “It’s native to Southeast Asia,” Somerville says, “and has been used in Japan and China for a thousand years for thatching, and uk canada goose outlet also Canada Goose Online for making paper.”

canada goose black friday sale The uk canada goose institute will look at many different species, but researchers like Miscanthus because it grows canada goose coats on sale fast with no fertilizers, canada goose no irrigation and no chemicals.

canada goose clearance Whatever plant is used, farmers will have to grow millions of acres if the industry canada goose store is going to compete with fossil fuels. Somerville says it’s important to find a plant that will not displace food crops. That’s where corn based ethanol is failing and why corn is not canada goose coats on the menu in Berkeley. But even nonfood plants such as Miscanthus could be bad news if farmers decided to plant it instead of food or canada goose clearance sale cut down the rain forest to grow it.

canada goose clearance sale “We’re only interested in it, frankly, if it can be environmentally positive and socially positive,” Somerville says. “So as we proceed with the technical innovation, we want to make sure we understand these other dimensions, and so that we can make appropriate choices, including one possible choice is that we shouldn’t do this.”

Canada Goose sale That’s something the sponsor of this research might not want to hear. That’s because the lab is funded by one of the world’s largest oil jackets companies, BP. It has committed $500 million over 10 years. At first blush, it seems strange that the company is putting this technology to the test, on one of the most progressive campuses in the country. But BP Vice President Paul Willems says the choice is deliberate.

“If biofuels are going to become a big part of our company in the long run, then our view is the only way that can be the case is if biofuels buy canada goose jacket are done in a sustainable way that is clearly good for the environment and land use,” Willems says. “We don’t want to be building a big part of our company on a shaky foundation.”Even assuming all these issues can be resolved, the blueprint for a biofuels industry is still not complete. The final piece will have to be government policies and regulations that create incentives for clean fuels.

cheap Canada Goose “Generally, business is very much in favor of a regulatory environment which is predictable,” Willems says. “People don’t like a regulatory environment which is on the left one day and on the cheap Canada Goose right the next day, and just flip flops back and forth, because it doesn’t provide a context in which you can make 20 and 30 year investments.”

To canada goose clearance create that context, governments would need to commit in the long term to cleaner energy sources and then stick with those plans over the course of dozens of election cycles not an easy task. Berkeley professor Dan Kammen, who helped found the institute, says the canadian goose jacket long term government policy should try to solve two problems at once: providing energy while taking steps canada goose uk black friday to slow climate change.

“Certainly, the canada goose uk shop ability to reduce carbon emissions has got to be front and center on that list,” he says.

canada goose coats on sale Kammen is not convinced that cellulose Canada Goose Jackets based biofuels will be the answer. But he says as long as the goals are articulated correctly and funding for research is ramped up, people will come up with recipes for fuels that move us around and that aren’t too hard on our planet.