Fuel made from waste

People try to find ways to protect the environment that are being heavily polluted. How can we survive in harmony with nature? One of the most concerned issues today, is the problem of waste. Recently, people have invented a way to transform solid waste into liquid fuel through gasification. This process uses heat to convert solids from carbon to syngas, which are then distilled into ethanol, an alcohol added to fuel supplies for vehicles.

Synthetic gas can be created from a variety of materials such as fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas), waste water, wood, agricultural waste and all kinds of solid waste from daily life and industry.

The idea of ​​transforming solids into liquid fuel has been around for a long time. The gasification process was discovered in Belgium since 1609, using wood and coal. This syngas has been used for street lights. Not only that, in the Second World War, when fuel scarcity was extremely serious, European vehicles were designed with engines to use synthetic gas made of wood chips.

How to get from garbage to fuel?

The first thing is to sort out the garbage.

The first step is to sort out the garbage at the collection points. Glass and metal will not be involved in this gasification process but will be recycled elsewhere. Other types of waste such as wood, grass and tires are the preferred types of waste. According to Mr. Wes Bolsen, Marketing Manager of American renewable energy production company Coskata, 'The substances that are heated and melted out will not be a good choice. Instead, substances that are heated and converted to gaseous bodies will be a smarter choice. ' Any kind of carbon-based material is selected for consideration in the gasification process.

When waste has been sorted, we will start with the gasification process. Imagine that your trash can only contain carrots and vegetables, which will gradually decompose and turn into compost. In the absence of oxygen, if the trash is closed, the carbon bonds in the vegetable will be broken. And the result that we get, is the natural gas, almost like the synthetic gas we said above.

Some tests show that this natural syngas can be used on vehicles like the Honda Civic NGV. However, not all vehicles use this gas, therefore, US renewable energy producer Coskata has sought to process fuel from this gas. The representative of the company said after the process of converting gas to ethanol is complete, the product created can meet the fuel demand of vehicles without changing the structure of these vehicles.

Honda Civic NGV and natural gas

When natural gas was created, the company would use a bacterium in the water environment to change from gas to liquid. These bacteria will inhale CO, CO ₂ , H ₂ and leave only ethanol. The next thing to do is to distill ethanol from the water. Thus, ethanol has been collected.

Benefits of using garbage

Whether you ride a new car for three years, or for thirty years, you know that stabilizing gas prices is unlikely. The unstable political situation, natural disasters and a stagnant economy can all affect gasoline prices. And the result of this trend is the price of gasoline being pushed up, and going up. Finding alternative fuels is a problem not only for fuel scientists, but also for the government and economists.

Not only is the price problem, environmental issues are also very hot issues. Gas emitted from traditional fuels only pollutes the atmosphere. And this gas emitted from vehicles is not a small amount. Reducing this amount of waste is also reducing the burden on the environment. Ethanol has a lower carbon composition than regular gasoline. Ethanol vehicles have less than half of CO ₂ emissions.

Huge garbage dumps

The US Department of Energy said the new synthetic gas meets the environmental requirements and strict regulations on emissions. Moreover, the supply of ethanol is also more popular. Ethanol has been allowed to be traded and widely used. The source of making ethanol is also special, from corn to leftovers, pulp or wood. Therefore, too many garbage-focused cities like Chicago (USA) are trying to find waste treatment systems like Coskata.

This is just basic information about the fuel derived from waste. Of course, this fuel also has certain limitations such as ethanol does not evaporate quickly in a cold environment, making it harder to start the engine in the winter morning or ethanol produces less energy than gasoline, so vehicles that achieve the same efficiency will have to spend more fuel. Anyway, recycling waste into fuel is a positive initiative in the current context. We are still looking forward to more positive reports from scientists.