Renewable Fuels

Selecting suitable coconut plantations for Gliricidia inter cropping.

2012-01-14T14:26:00.000+05:30

Gliricidia grows well in the places where the coconut plantations are situated like Galle, Gampaha, Kurunagala, Puttalama, Matara, Hambantota. Additionally Kandy, Monaragala, Polonnaruwa, Anuradapura areas have the best climate condition for the Gliricidia plantation. Therefore dry, intermediate dry, intermediate wet and wet areas can be used to plant the Gliricidia well. It is better if the rain fall is within the range of 900-1800 mm. But if the dry period continues for about 6-8 months it is somewhat badly affect to the Gliricidia plant and decrease the growing rate.

Gliricidia grows well in various soils. So the Gravel is the best medium for the Gliricidia.

Sandy lome and clay lome soils also good for the Gliricidia. But in the more sandy soil the Gliricidia shows a low growing rate at the immature stage. Thus the dry season continuous for whole year, leaves are fallen down and shows a low growing rate. Because of the Gliricidia grows in eroded and less fertile areas it can be used to rehabilitate the areas like that.

Coconut Plantation at the early stage.

At early stage of a coconut plantation that means up to 5 years the site has plenty of sun light. So Gliricidia can be planted within the coconut plant lines. However 5-15 years coconut plantation with 26×26 spacing doesn’t have not sufficient sun light for Gliricidia. So it is useless to grow Gliricidia except the coconut plantation is somewhat week in condition.

Coconut plantation within 15-55 years.

Coconut plantations within this age group have sufficient sun light in the field. So the Gliricidia can be grown well. But at the age of 60 which have to reestablish the coconut plant is not suitable to plant Gliricidia.

Gliricidia as a renewable fuel. ( Introduction )

2012-01-10T18:30:00.001+05:30

Gliricidia sepium is a fast growing, tropical tree which native to the Central America and Mexico. Gliricidia has been widely introduced to many tropical countries as an exotic species. It is used for many purposes because of its high productivity and adoptability. It has been introduce to Sri Lanka before 300 years by the Western Indian Ministries. After that since about 100 years Gliricidia has spread through Tea estates as a shady tree for the tea plantation. As well as it has been introduced to pepper plantation as a helping tree for the pepper sprouts. It has been introduced to Coconut plantation as a fencing tree.

Kingdom :Plantae

Order : Fabales

Family : Fabaceae

Subfamily : Faboideae

Genus : Gliricidia

The tree is a small thorn less, semi-deciduous tree normally growing to 12m and will develop a trunk of about 30 cm of average diameter; however it is often grown under management systems which keep its overall size and development much smaller than this and its overall shape within agricultural environments tends to be modified by lopping and pruning. The leaves are alternate and pinnate meaning that each complete leaf is made of a group of smaller leaflets. Commonly the total leaf is 15-30 cm composed of 7-17 leaflet pairs plus a terminal leaflet. Gliricidia has lot of local names such as Wetahiriya, Wetamara, Ladappa, Kola Pohora, Ginisiriya and Albesia.

Some important characteristics of Gliricidia which use to plant with coconut.

Enrich the soil condition and prevent the soil erosion.
Week coconut plantations can be rehabilitated using Gliricidia.
It is growing well in various soil conditions and somewhat hard climate conditions.
The coconut planters aware of this tree since many years.
It’s easy to breed and plant.
It is sustain to frequent pruning.
Few damaged from pest and other diseases.
Gliricidia can be used as good fuel wood.
It is very easy to maintain and doesn’t need any special fertilizers.
Gliricidia doesn’t give any bad effects on coconut plantation.

Uses of Camelina saliva’s Biodiesel.

2012-01-08T08:46:00.001+05:30

Several commercial ventures have produced or are currently working toward production of camelina-derived renewable jet fuel, as examples Accelergy Corp., Altair, Inc., Biojet Corp. and Sustainable Oils,. Additionally, Altair, Inc. is also working toward production of renewable diesel fuel. Except to these institutes The US air force and the navy have done many experiments based on C. sativa Bio diesel. They successfully tested these Biodiesel on their aircrafts at many times.

The US State of Montana has recently been growing more and more camelina for its potential as a bio-fuel and bio-lubricant.Plant scientists at the University of Idaho and other institutions study this emerging biodiesel.

Studies have shown camelina-based jet fuel to reduce net carbon emissions from jets by about 80%. The United States Navy chose camelina as the feedstock for their first test of aviation bio-fuel,and successfully operated a static F414 engine (used in the F/A-18) in October 2009 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland.

The US Air Force also began testing the fuel in its aircraft in March 2010. In March, 2011, the U.S. Air Force successfully tested a 50/50 mix of JP-8 (Jet Propellant 8) and camelina-derived bio-fuel in an F-22 Raptor, achieving a speed of Mach 1.5.

On September 4, 2011, the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron would be using a 50/50 blend of Camelina bio-fuel and jet fuel at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River Air Expo. This event marks the first time that an entire military aviation unit has flown on a bio-fuel mix.

The Navy plans to deploy a "Great Green Fleet" by 2016, a Carrier battle group powered entirely by non-fossil fuels. The Air Force is also planning on using 50% bio-fuels in its aircraft by 2016 As such; the U.S. Air Force announced that by the year 2016, 50% of the fuel it consumes will be from bio-fuels as well.

In 2009, the U.S. Navy and the Air Force contracted with Sustainable Oils for more than 140,000 gallons of camelina biojet fuel. Just recently, both groups exercised contract options for additional camelina biojet fuel, bringing the total to nearly 500,000 gallons to be delivered in 2010 and early 2011.

Not only United state some other countries also have used C. sativa-based biodiesel for their Air craft’s

KLM, the Royal Dutch Airline, was the first airline in the world to operate a passenger-carrying flight using bio-fuel. On the 23 of November 2009 a Boeing 747 flew, carrying a limited number of passengers, with one of its four engines running on a 50/50 mix of bio-fuel and kerosene.

In June, 2011, a Gulfstream G450 became the first business jet to cross the Atlantic Ocean using a blend of 50/50 bio-fuel developed by Honeywell derived from camelina and petroleum based jet fuel.

In 2009 January Japan Airlines conducted a one and a half hour flight with one engine burning a 50/50 mix of Jet-A and bio-fuel from the Camelina plant.

References:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camelina_sativa

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/one-billion-gallons-in-camelina-biofuel-by-2025-89105252.html

Camelina oil as feedstock for biodiesel

2012-01-03T08:18:00.001+05:30

Biodiesel is defined by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) as “a fuel comprised of mono-alkyl esters of long-chain fatty acids” that meets the requirements of ASTM standard D6751. Biodiesel can be prepared from a wide variety of lipids. Advantages of biodiesel include positive energy balance, domestic and renewable origin, biodegradability, high flash point, excellent lubricity, low or no sulfur content, lower overall exhaust emissions versus petrodiesel, and miscibility with petrodiesel at all blend ratios.

Poor economics and insufficient supply of feedstock represent disadvantages of biodiesel along with relatively poor cold flow properties and oxidative stability as compared with petrodiesel, as well as dilution of engine oil and elevated nitrogen oxides in exhaust emissions. C.sativa is particularly attractive as an alternative feedstock for biodiesel production as a result of its low cost versus commodity oils coupled with its potential to significantly enhance domestic feedstock availability. Biodiesel is classically prepared by trans esterification of lipids in the presence of an homogenous alkali catalyst and excess methanol at elevated (60C) temperature.. Crude feedstocks that have low free fatty acid contents (less than 3.0 wt%) can be directly trans esterified without pretreatment, thereby eliminating a costly pretreatment step.

C.sativa is one such crude oil and has been successfully converted to biodiesel (fatty acid methyl esters) by the classic method as well as with heterogeneous metal oxide catalysts both with and without microwave irradiation and at non-catalytic sub- and supercritical conditions employing co-solvents with methanol. The fuel properties (cold flow properties, oxidative stability, kinematic viscosity, cetane number, etc.) of camelina-based biodiesel are similar to those of biodiesel prepared from soybean oil, thus indicating its acceptability for use as biodiesel.

Additionally, fatty acid ethyl esters have been prepared from camelina oil and along with methyl esters were evaluated as blend components in petrodiesel. As was the case with the neat esters, camelina-based biodiesel blends in petrodiesel exhibited fuel properties comparable to the corresponding soybean-based blends.

References:-

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/one-billion-gallons-in-camelina-biofuel-by-2025-89105252.html

http://biomassadvisors.com/blog/thinking/reports

Evaluation of alkyl esters from Camelina sativa oil as biodiesel and as blend Components in ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel.

By Bryan R. Moser *, Steven F. Vaughn

Camelina (Camelina sativa L.) oil as a biofuels feedstock: Golden opportunity or false hope?

BY Bryan R. Moser

Camelina sativa

2011-12-31T12:16:00.001+05:30

Kingdom : Plantae

Order : Brassicales

Family : Brassicaceae

Genus : Camelina

Species : C. sativa

Basic Information

Camelina sativa is a flowering plant in the family of Brassicaceae which include mustard, cabbage, rapeseed, broccoli, cauliflower. This plant is native to Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia. C. sativa does not need more water and fertilizers. It can be grown in marginal agricultural lands and does not compete with food crops. It is used as a rotational crop with heat and cotton in order to enrich the soil condition.C. sativa has been cultivating since many years as a vegetable oils and animal feeds. During the Bronze Age and Iron Age C. sativa has had a main agricultural crop in Greece.

Plant Characteristics

C. sativa is an annual plant which grows about one to three feet. This is a short season crop and reaches to its maturity in 85 to 100 days. C. sativa has a branching stem and at the mature stage it is woody. The leaves are pointed with smooth edges and grow at about three inches long. The flower has 4 pale yellow petals. The seeds which are in orange color seed pods contain about 40% of oil content. The seeding rate is at about 6-14kg/ha.

"Biodiesel"..... as a Renewable fuel source....

2011-12-30T10:25:00.001+05:30

Biodiesel is alternative fuel which use alternative to the ordinary petroleum based fuel. It contains no petroleum but it can be blended with petroleum at any level in order to produce a biodiesel blend. It can be successfully used for diesel engine with little or no modifications. Comparing to the ordinary petroleum based fuel it is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics. So using Biodiesel is more environmental friendly rather than using petroleum based fuel. Not only the environmental friendly but also it is a solution to petroleum fuels because these fuels are not longer exist in the future. So if we can develop the biodiesel as alternative to the petroleum based fuel, it will be a great finding for the next generation.

Some rating system according to the blend with the Petroliam based fuel.

100% biodiesel is referred to as B100
20% biodiesel, 80% petrodiesel is labeled B20
5% biodiesel, 95% petro diesel is labeled B5
2% biodiesel, 98% petro diesel is labeled B2

If we use blends less than B20, the engine modification is not required. But for the B100 little engine modification may require.

Biodiesel is made through a chemical process and the process is called “trans esterification”. In this process glycerin is separated from the fat or vegetable oil. Tow products are produced through this process and they are Methyl esters and glycerin. Methyl ester is called as Biodiesel.

Several plant species can be used for the Biodiesel production process. As example soybean, mustard seed, camelina, sesame, sunflowers, peanuts, olives, jatropha, coconut, oil palm. Among these plants species Camelina (camelina sativa) is one of a famous plant species which use for preparing Biodiesel. It has been cultivating for many years for the purpose of oil and food for live stock. Evidence says that C.sataiva has been grown in Europe for at least 3000 years.

Advantages of using C. sativa.

· C. sativa is a high amount of Omega-3 fatty acids which makes it a good food for livestock.

· More cold-resistant than other plants used for bio-fuels.

· Can be used in crop rotation with wheat & cotton.

· When Camelina is rotated with wheat, the wheat sees a 15% increase in yield.

· It has about twice the yield of soy crops.

· The plant grows where others would die from drought conditions.