Four dollar a gallon gasoline hits students where they live. It has their attention. Alternative fuels from biomass are the most likely alternative to petroleum for transportation in their future as this approach reduces the CO2 dumped into the atmosphere. We will need sustainable liquid substitutes for gas, diesel, and jet fuel.
One likely system for addressing this problem involves the mass generation of bio-crude. This is a widely produced substitute for crude oil that is a liquid that can be pumped to regional refineries and cracked into the needed fuels and chemical sources. Starting materials for bio-crude include: municipal garbage, industrial wastes, agricultural wastes (corn stalks), and purpose grown crops (switch grass). The conversion process involves high temperatures and pressures, but is not to complex an industrial process.
The purpose grown crops must be grown on marginal land without irrigation and with very little pest control or tilling. They must not be grown on existing forest land, but they may be tree farms.
Many student projects are possible on the sources of biomass in their area. There are many open questions that students could help answer. What weedy crops produce the best yield of energy for each unit of energy used to grow them? What industrial wastes are produced in their area that still contains large amounts of energy?
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