Biofuels And The Development Of Tobacco–Fueled Cars!
Biofuels have been a popular idea for research scientists, automobile manufacturers and consumers for many years. If scientists could develop a viable method for creating fuel out of plants, consumers would no longer be dependent on the limited supply of crude oil in the world. With manufacturers creating cars that would run on biofuels, consumers have every hope of having energy-efficient vehicles that run on renewable resources within the next two decades.
In recent years, vehicle manufacturers embraced the idea of biofuels by creating cars that could run on ethanol. Ethanol, an alcohol made primarily from fermenting corn, gives off the same kind of fumes that allow gasoline to burn in engines. It also contains more oxygen that regular gasoline, so it expels fewer emissions from vehicles that have ethanol-powered engines. Car manufacturers have created a range of vehicles that run on 85% ethanol and only 15% gasoline.
Corn ethanol is not the perfect fuel for automobiles or other engines. First, other plants have higher stored energy than corn, like soybeans. Soybeans, however, are not currently grown in excess the way corn is. As a result, soybean crops remain a food crops while corn production continues in such surplus that scientists may reasonably explore using it as a fuel. As well, producing ethanol from corn usually requires heavy equipment powered exclusively by gasoline. In the process of producing the more energy-efficient fuel, refiners use less environmentally-sound fuels! To rectify that, some researchers have been attempting to create biofuels from inedible plants.
Researchers at the Lawrence Berkley National Lab are creating fuel from tobacco leaves. They are genetically engineering the tobacco plants to produce hydrocarbons so that the scientists may turn the tobacco into biofuel. They chose tobacco for many reasons including the ease with which they may genetically alter it, the large leaves for producing the hydrocarbons, and the fact that many countries already grow large swaths of tobacco.
Another benefit of using tobacco as fuel would be health benefits. With tobacco as fuel, the current tobacco companies could become fuel companies, and there would be less available tobacco for cigarettes. By reducing tobacco production for cigarettes, scientists and vehicle manufacturers could effectively cut cigarette production without hurting the bottom line of the tobacco farmers or Big Tobacco, which has historically been resistant to change.
If the researchers can complete the process and create reliable fuel from tobacco, it would revolutionize the fuel industry. Reliance on crude oil would drop and tobacco fuel would initially cost less than gasoline to produce. Tobacco fuel is more globally conscious because it is not a food source, so developing tobacco as a fuel would not deprive the human population of a valuable food source. One day, all of our automatic cars may run either on biofuels or on electricity. After years of promoting a product that is detrimental to human health and the environment, tobacco companies have the opportunity to evolve into cutting-edge energy companies!
About RESCUECOM:
RESCUECOM provides computer repair and computer support, 24/7: Meeting every tech support need including data recovery, virus removal, networking, wireless services, and computer support for all brands of hardware and software. For computer support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC.
For More Information, Contact:
ceo@rescuecom.com
1-800-737-2837
Filed under: david milman, news, performance, power supply, rescuecom, technology