Perhaps many people don't know that ethanol can replace gasoline as a fuel for cars. In fact, more than 5 million cars in the world use ethanol as fuel. These ethanol-fueled cars are not only more economical than gasoline-fueled cars, but also hardly emit harmful greenhouse gases to the environment. With the soaring international crude oil price and the distant prospect of hydrogen economy, economists predict that only ethanol can truly replace gasoline as a green fuel for human survival in the future.
Technology, funds and policies are mature.
In 2005, the U.S. Department of Energy released a forecast figure: they believe that by 2030, 30% of the automobile fuel consumption structure in the United States will be ethanol fuel. But in fact, experts think we may not have to wait that long, because many people have realized that ethanol will be a revolutionary fuel in the future. In the United States, from venture capital to Wall Street businessmen, from car manufacturers, environmentalists to farmers, they no longer talk about whether ethanol can replace gasoline, but quietly act. A large amount of money began to flow to bio-refineries, and automobile engines were transformed into hybrid engines that could burn ethanol and gasoline. A large amount of scientific research funds are invested in scientific research institutions, which makes the cost of ethanol production lower. Experts predict that in the next five years, with the rising international crude oil prices, ethanol will become the main energy solution in the world. They firmly believe that with the continuous progress of technology, ethanol produced with cellulose as the main raw material can completely replace oil to meet the current energy needs of human beings without increasing the cultivated land area and changing people's diet structure.
Although many people still think that hydrogen energy will eventually replace fossil fuels, in fact, the economy of hydrogen energy is still far away. From hydrogen manufacturing to transportation, from hydrogen gas stations to cars using hydrogen as energy, these investments add up to trillions of dollars, and ethanol fuel is a more realistic way to achieve it. At present, ethanol fuel can be added to gas stations with a little modification. These ethanol fuels contain 85% ethanol and 65,438+05% gasoline. Each car can use ethanol gasoline, and the modification cost is 200 dollars. In Brazil, three-quarters of new cars can use ethanol and gasoline as fuel at the same time. Due to the use of a large amount of ethanol fuel, Brazil has completely got rid of the embarrassing situation of needing oil imports.
It is precisely because of the broad prospects of ethanol fuel that huge amounts of money are being invested in the ethanol fuel industry. ADM is the largest ethanol producer in the United States, producing more than 654.38 billion gallons of ethanol every year. Last September, the company announced that it would expand its production capacity by 50%, that is, it would produce 65.438+0.5 billion gallons of ethanol every year. Another venture capital company, including Bill Gates, plans to invest $2.6 billion to build a factory to produce ethanol fuel. This investment alone will increase the ethanol production capacity in the United States by 40%. Some car manufacturers and oil companies are also unwilling to be lonely. Ford Motor Company began to promote the transformation of ethanol fuel gas stations, while Shell Company built the world's first large-scale ethanol production plant with cellulose as raw material in Canada. Exxonmobil supported Stanford University to conduct research on new energy sources with US$ 6,543.8+billion, and achieved results.
However, the biggest supporter is the US government. According to American government regulations, ethanol manufacturers can enjoy a tax rebate of 5 1% for every1gallon of ethanol produced. This alone will increase the income of ethanol producers by 7 billion dollars in five years, which will greatly stimulate the enthusiasm of producers, greatly reduce the production cost of ethanol fuel and promote the rapid promotion of ethanol fuel.
Ethanol fuel is very popular in Brazil.
Brazil is in an absolute leading position in the field of ethanol fuel application. Brazil is one of the most suitable areas for planting sugarcane in the world, and sugarcane is the best raw material for making ethanol fuel. Because of this natural advantage, Brazil is far ahead of other countries in the development and application of ethanol fuel. Compared with crude oil that needs long-distance transportation, the ethanol fuel production plant is built next to a farm rich in sugarcane, and the waste from the plant after ethanol fuel production is directly burned to generate electricity, and the generated electricity is directly integrated into the power grid. Not only that, because Brazil has vigorously promoted the application of ethanol fuel for many years, ethanol fuel can be added to every gas station in the country, thus driving the consumption of ethanol fuel. Due to the uniqueness of Brazil, since 2002, some automobile manufacturers such as Ford and Volkswagen have tried to promote dual-fuel vehicles, which can use ordinary gasoline and ethanol as fuels. This kind of car was immediately welcomed by the Brazilian people as soon as it was launched. In 2003 and 2004, ethanol fuel produced in Brazil was 45% cheaper than gasoline, which greatly promoted the sales of dual-fuel vehicles. In 2003, dual-fuel vehicles only accounted for 6% of the total market sales. Automobile manufacturers predicted that the sales of dual-fuel vehicles would reach 30% in 2005, but the actual situation surprised experts. In 2005, the proportion of dual-fuel vehicles was as high as 73%, and Brazil is currently on the road.
The rapid application of ethanol fuel has changed Brazil's economic structure. Since Brazil no longer needs to import oil, this cost alone saved the country $69 billion in foreign exchange, and these funds stayed in Brazil, making some rural areas get rich quickly because of planting sugar cane. At present, Brazil has built 250 ethanol fuel production plants in the southeast, and another 50 plants are under construction.
Ethanol fuel will be the final outlet of green energy.
Brazil's experience has brought many inspirations to many countries. In particular, some American venture capitalists began to study the real value of ethanol fuel in the future. They tried to deny ethanol fuel by demonstrating various models and compared ethanol fuel with various green energy sources. The results surprised the experts. Their research found that ethanol fuel will eventually replace gasoline as the future fuel, which will be realized not only in the United States, but also in many countries.
However, even the most professional venture capitalists don't think that we can give up gasoline completely in the near future. The oil-based industrial chain is so effective that it has penetrated into every aspect of our lives. In other words, it is difficult for us to get rid of our dependence on oil. On the other hand, many people still doubt whether the ethanol obtained by grain fermentation is enough to meet the human demand for fuel. Many people worry that mass production of ethanol from grains will change the diet structure of human beings, and some critics think that obtaining ethanol from grains will consume more energy. The final report of the US Department of Energy calmed all the people who quarreled. The U.S. government believes that the ethanol produced by grain is obviously ahead of the fuel produced by oil in terms of key energy and positive impact on the environment, and the ethanol produced by cellulose will do better in the future.
Cellulose is used to produce ethanol from straw, turf and bark, which is inedible to human beings and will not threaten their food supply at all. Researchers use specific enzymes to decompose cellulose to obtain simple sugars, and then convert these sugars into energy for use. Cellulose is very abundant in nature, and ethanol obtained from cellulose is very clean and can drive cars as effectively as gasoline. More importantly, we no longer need to reinvent the car, which will enable our automobile industry to continue to develop without causing huge waste. At present, enzymes that can digest cellulose can be widely used in industry. For example, enzyme that can decompose cellulose is added to Tide washing powder to make the washed clothes cleaner. Experts estimate that enzymes have reduced the cost of cellulosic ethanol from $5/gallon five years ago to $0.2/gallon. Now, the only work that ethanol plants need to do is to explore the experience of large-scale production.
It is far from enough to rely solely on the efforts of enterprises, and the government has great power in promoting new energy. In order to accelerate the rapid application of ethanol fuel, the US government requires that the annual consumption of cellulosic ethanol fuel should reach 250 million gallons by 20 13. In addition, experts also suggested that the US government cancel the tariff of ethanol gasoline imported from Brazil as high as 54%. Because sugarcane is more suitable for ethanol production, ethanol fuel produced in Brazil is cheaper. Reducing tariffs will make more people use ethanol fuel, and at the same time, it will prompt more gas stations to be reformed to supply ethanol fuel, further promoting the large-scale application of ethanol fuel. Many experts also believe that some oil giants should also increase their investment in green energy. Shell's investment in Russia alone is as high as $20 billion, and the investment in green energy is dwarfed by it.
Of course, ethanol fuel will not change from ideal to reality overnight. Before the international crude oil price remained high, Brazil had used ethanol fuel for decades before it achieved its present achievements. Experts suggest that the sooner ethanol fuel is popularized, the faster it can be freed from the quagmire of dependence on oil, and the international crude oil price will never return to the price of 20 US dollars per barrel. With the rise of global emerging markets, the energy crisis will become more and more serious, and ethanol fuel is showing its unique charm that it can only replace petroleum products.
2/ Shandong Yucheng Longli Biotechnology Co., Ltd. used modern biotechnology to hydrolyze industrial fiber waste residue to produce bioethanol, which was approved by the provincial development and reform commission. The total investment of the project is 162 1 1000 yuan, with an annual output of 50,000 tons of bioethanol. This is the first cellulose ethanol project approved by Shandong Province.
400,000 tons of fuel ethanol reconstruction and expansion project is a major technical transformation project implemented by Jilin Fuel Ethanol Co., Ltd. With the vigorous promotion of vehicle ethanol gasoline in Jilin and Liaoning provinces, the sales volume of fuel ethanol products has increased steadily.
3/ Industry Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" special plan for the development of biofuel ethanol and ethanol gasoline for vehicles and the policy for the development of biofuel ethanol industry.
4/ How to extract ethanol from rice straw
In Ottawa, Canada, the world's first experimental plant for large-scale production of cellulosic ethanol is undergoing final commissioning. In the figure, 1 0,000 pounds of straw first becomes fluffy by 1 step, and then it is crushed by two steps (three steps) and then enters the "steam explosion" process, so that the straw becomes very tiny fragments. Subsequently, cellulase is added (step 4) to convert these fragments into saccharides (this process takes several days), and these saccharides go through traditional fermentation procedures (step 5) and then distillation (step 6) to become high-purity ethanol. By adding gasoline (step 7), high-purity ethanol can be converted into 35 to 40 gallons of ethanol fuel for dual-fuel vehicles (step 8).
5/ good