This is a strange one, mates, about using grass for fuel and we're not really sure if this is good or bad news.
Researchers at Ghent University (Belgium, Europe) have developed a process that turns grass into biofuel.
In the quest of more sustainable fuel types, scientists at Ghent University have developed a way to turn grass into biofuel. Will we soon drive on 'grassoline'?
"Until now, grass has mainly served as feed for animals. But apart from that, grass can also be used as biofuel. Due to its vast abundance, grass is the perfect source of energy," scientist Way Cern Khor tells us. During his PhD research at Ghent University, Belgium, he investigated methods that can disintegrate and treat grass until it can be used as a fuel.
Science Daily: Will grass become the new gasoline?
They're relatively merciful in their description of how they do it:
To improve its biodegradability, the grass is pretreated at first. Then bacteria are added. They convert the sugars in the grass into lactic acid and its derivatives.
This lactic acid can serve as an intermediate chemical to produce other compounds such as biodegradable plastics (PLA) or fuels.
The lactic acid then was converted into caproic acid, which was further converted into decane. And that's where the process ends: decane can be used in aviation fuel. [SP1]
- SD
Using grass for jet fuel sounds like a suitably Jetsons ambition but we really don't want the grass in the first place. Cultivated lawns are about as abusive as one can get toward biodiversity so using them for the harvest of the lawn clippings isn't sparking my ecological libido.
But ...
enormous volumes of hay are cultivated by farmers for feeding cattle. The hay may not be so good for biofuel but harvesting earlier from the same type of crop should work.
Ed: you're wanting to run jet planes on hay?
Not me, mate. It's the scientists saying they can do it.
Laugh if you like but it's live science and it works. The only question now is bringing down the cost of producing it.
Although it might sound revolutionary, there's still a lot to do before this becomes reality. Right now the amount of biofuel that can be made from grass is still limited to a few drops. The current process is very expensive, and engines should be adapted to this new kind of fuel.
"If we can keep working on optimizing this process in cooperation with the business world, we can come down on the price. And maybe in a few years we can all fly on grass!," Khor concludes.
- SD
Ed: that's just sci fi
Not at all. It's not sci fi when he has demonstrated the process. Reducing the cost is mechanical after that.
There's a whole set of ecological problems since many will argue growing food (i.e. hay) to feed animals so they become food we can eat makes no ecological sense. It doesn't but we like eating animals so we do it.
The Rockhouse thinks that argument is going to get less compelling quickly due to the advent of synthofood and they can make it taste like whatever you want. That's not just for spaceships; it's for McDonald's.
Ed: the Age of Robos and the Diet of the Synthofood are just your deluded stoner sci fi hallucinations
Believe whatever you like but you know the robos are coming faster all the time and already there are synthetic flavors in all kinds of things. Yes, sir, how about some tofu which tastes like a banana split. The problem usually isn't taste so much as texture.
Sooner or later there will be a Turing Food Test in which you have to identify whether the hay they turned into filet mignon is real or fake beef and you may not be able to do it.
Researchers at Ghent University (Belgium, Europe) have developed a process that turns grass into biofuel.
In the quest of more sustainable fuel types, scientists at Ghent University have developed a way to turn grass into biofuel. Will we soon drive on 'grassoline'?
"Until now, grass has mainly served as feed for animals. But apart from that, grass can also be used as biofuel. Due to its vast abundance, grass is the perfect source of energy," scientist Way Cern Khor tells us. During his PhD research at Ghent University, Belgium, he investigated methods that can disintegrate and treat grass until it can be used as a fuel.
Science Daily: Will grass become the new gasoline?
They're relatively merciful in their description of how they do it:
To improve its biodegradability, the grass is pretreated at first. Then bacteria are added. They convert the sugars in the grass into lactic acid and its derivatives.
This lactic acid can serve as an intermediate chemical to produce other compounds such as biodegradable plastics (PLA) or fuels.
The lactic acid then was converted into caproic acid, which was further converted into decane. And that's where the process ends: decane can be used in aviation fuel. [SP1]
- SD
Using grass for jet fuel sounds like a suitably Jetsons ambition but we really don't want the grass in the first place. Cultivated lawns are about as abusive as one can get toward biodiversity so using them for the harvest of the lawn clippings isn't sparking my ecological libido.
But ...
enormous volumes of hay are cultivated by farmers for feeding cattle. The hay may not be so good for biofuel but harvesting earlier from the same type of crop should work.
Ed: you're wanting to run jet planes on hay?
Not me, mate. It's the scientists saying they can do it.
Laugh if you like but it's live science and it works. The only question now is bringing down the cost of producing it.
Although it might sound revolutionary, there's still a lot to do before this becomes reality. Right now the amount of biofuel that can be made from grass is still limited to a few drops. The current process is very expensive, and engines should be adapted to this new kind of fuel.
"If we can keep working on optimizing this process in cooperation with the business world, we can come down on the price. And maybe in a few years we can all fly on grass!," Khor concludes.
- SD
Ed: that's just sci fi
Not at all. It's not sci fi when he has demonstrated the process. Reducing the cost is mechanical after that.
There's a whole set of ecological problems since many will argue growing food (i.e. hay) to feed animals so they become food we can eat makes no ecological sense. It doesn't but we like eating animals so we do it.
The Rockhouse thinks that argument is going to get less compelling quickly due to the advent of synthofood and they can make it taste like whatever you want. That's not just for spaceships; it's for McDonald's.
Ed: the Age of Robos and the Diet of the Synthofood are just your deluded stoner sci fi hallucinations
Believe whatever you like but you know the robos are coming faster all the time and already there are synthetic flavors in all kinds of things. Yes, sir, how about some tofu which tastes like a banana split. The problem usually isn't taste so much as texture.
Sooner or later there will be a Turing Food Test in which you have to identify whether the hay they turned into filet mignon is real or fake beef and you may not be able to do it.
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