EcoFactor: Sustainable production of gasoline from sugar.
Do you think adding sugar to your gas tank will ruin your vehicle? Well, think again, because a few researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison certainly have an innovative well-researched theory. According to them, the sugar can be passed over a series of catalyst resources, which will speed up reactions to form many of the chemicals that are extracted from non-renewable petroleum. This chemical then goes through an intermediate stage as an organic liquid composed of functional compounds.
James Dumesic, the chemical engineer who headed the study, mentioned that the compounds can retain 95 percent of the energy of the biomass but only about 40 percent of the mass can be upgraded into different types of transportation fuels. Green gasoline certainly is generating interest across various communities as they yield a product that is compatible with existing infrastructure and most importantly can be used from agricultural waste. Hence, this new invention truly seems like a natural way to progression!
The Dark Side:
I personally feel that the world is not ready for sugar to be replaced as gasoline as the technology still isn’t perfected. We all know that at the end of the pickup tube in the gas tank is a sock that blocks solid materials. Sugar is a granular contaminant and that could cause a problem, as continuous use will lead them to pile up to a sizable amount and those materials would find great difficulty to pass through the sock. This would lead to heavy clogging, which could require the gas tank to be removed. A few years down the line this might turn into a flawless alternative, but at the moment it certainly isn’t!
Via: Gas2
