WEBVTT - Biofuel Bonanza 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to text Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:13.840 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tex Stuff. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:16.840 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:19.680 I Heart Radio and I love all things tech, and 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:22.319 today I thought I would tackle a topic that I 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.599 think can get a little confusing at times. There's a 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:27.840 lot going on with it, and there are a ton 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:30.440 of different parties, all with their own agendas and points 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:33.680 of view that make it kind of tricky to understand 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:36.160 if you're trying to come at it from an objective, 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:41.279 unbiased perspective. The topic is, of course biofuels, which I 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:44.159 imagine is in the title of this episode somewhere, so 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:46.960 it shouldn't come as a surprise. Now, there are a 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:51.440 lot of topics that are either directly or tangentially related 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:54.880 to biofuels, and that makes this more complicated than just 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:59.280 saying X material represents why amounts of energy if you 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:02.280 put it through s Z right, if that's all it were, 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:05.039 If we could just say, let's take these two different 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.520 materials and say how much energy would you get after say, 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:11.680 burning them? Uh, and that was it, it would be 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:13.840 a lot easier. But as it turns out it's way 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:17.560 more complex than that. There are environmental concerns. There are 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:21.920 arguments about climate change. Really the only argument is how 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:28.000 can we alleviate it? Because climate change is undeniably a thing. Um, 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:31.080 I don't well, I guess people can deny it, but 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:35.360 they're wrong anyway. There are also national security considerations, and 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:37.480 there's a lot more to think about. Two. So we're 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:39.839 gonna break this down and we're gonna get a deeper 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:44.319 understanding about biofuels, what they are, what they aren't, and 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:46.240 you know, stuff like that. So this is one of 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:50.000 those topics where it really is important to think critically 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.280 about everything. I know. I stressed that a lot in 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:56.600 this show, and in this particular topic, I think it 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:59.559 it really comes to play. It's very easy to say 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:02.320 false fuels are bad and we should stop using them. 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:04.800 Now I happen to believe that that is true, that 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:07.600 fossil fuels are not great for us to use and 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:10.280 we should stop using them. But you also have to 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:13.840 acknowledge why we use fossil fuels in the first place 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:16.640 as opposed to other stuff. What is it about fossil 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.320 fuels that makes most of the world dependent upon them? 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:23.480 For energy consumption purposes. And the answer isn't as simple 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:27.040 as because big oil wants it that way. I mean, yeah, 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:30.600 big oil does want it that way, because any business 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:33.400 leader wants their business to be a thriving one. But 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:37.120 it's not as simple as conspiracy theories might make it seem. 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:40.280 A lot of conspiracy theories try to wrap up very 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:45.040 complicated issues and create a very simple message to deliver that, 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:48.000 and it turns out that reality gets a lot more 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:52.720 wibbly wobbly. Timey whiney. Now, my goal is to once 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.040 again encourage critical thinking and which we examine a problem 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.200 from many angles to determine what the best solution is, 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:02.960 and that solution might be fully dependent upon whatever your 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:06.200 specific goal happens to be. So, for example, if your 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:10.400 goal is to move dependency away from big oil companies 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.919 and countries with rich oil deposits that maybe aren't your 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:17.680 friendliest neighbors, that's one thing, right, if that's your goal. 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:20.000 If you say I have identified what my goal is, 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:23.880 I don't want to be dependent upon oil, well then 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:26.680 you can come up with lots of different potential solutions. 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:28.920 But let's say that your goal is different. Maybe your 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:33.440 goal is I want to make the smallest environmental impact possible. Well, 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:36.880 the solution may end up being a different one from 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:39.480 the solution to goal number one. And if you have 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:42.480 multiple goals, then you have to start weighing everything against 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.080 each other and say, well, how do I prioritize this. 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:48.760 How do I pick a solution that is not necessarily 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:50.840 going to be the best at all of these but 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:53.880 is the best option out of all the different options 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:57.320 I have? And like I said, it gets tough. So 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:01.320 we're gonna start off as simple as we possibly can, 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:05.040 which is asking the question what is fuel? Now? I 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:07.760 know it sounds silly for me to ask that question. 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:10.840 You probably all are very well aware of what it is, 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:15.600 but building our understanding on basic fundamentals will help later on. So, 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:20.720 a fuel is a substance that contains energy. More importantly, 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:24.080 it's energy that can be released and then harnessed to 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:26.479 do work of some kind, even if that work is 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:29.440 just as simple as releasing heat. So we can think 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:33.400 of fuel as stored energy that we must release in 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:37.279 some way, typically through a type of chemical reaction, such 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:41.520 as through the process of burning it. Now, ancient humans 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:44.400 figured out that wood works pretty great as a fuel 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:46.400 if you can figure out how to set the stuff 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:49.400 on fire. There were you know, there were plenty of 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:52.800 trees around. There's a lot of wood available, and it 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:55.560 contained enough energy to be practical. It could keep you warm, 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:58.880 it could provide light. So wood was a really good 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:01.680 fuel source for a very long time. Now, you might 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:06.000 remember from science class that fire needs three things to 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:10.520 exist the triangle, right. You need to have fuel, you 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:13.880 need to have an oxidizer such as you know, oxygen, 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:17.480 and you need heat. If you are missing one of 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:21.960 those three things, you don't get fire, which honestly is 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.400 a good thing, or else we wouldn't be here. I mean, 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:27.360 if if wood and oxygen we're all you needed, then 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:30.360 wood would catch fire immediately upon being exposed to oxygen. 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:33.760 If you didn't need oxygen, then once a fire started, 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:35.960 it would be really hard to put it out, since 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:38.680 nearly all of our methods of extinguishing a fire rely 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:43.239 upon removing oxygen from that triangle I just talked about. Now, 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:46.960 there's an actual chemical reaction that happens when you have 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:50.680 wood in an oxygen eated environment and it reaches its 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.560 ignition temperature. When wood reaches about a hundred fifty degrees 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:58.560 celsius or three hundred degrees fahrenheit. Some of the cellulose 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:02.200 material that makes up the wood begins to decompose into 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:06.200 three different types of stuff. You get volatile gases which 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.760 release from the wood and they that's what smoke is. 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.840 That's part of you know, the stuff we can see, 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:15.280 that's part of the voluable gas is released from wood 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:18.479 when it reaches that temperature, and volatile gases consist of 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:22.000 compounds of hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen. You also get a 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:26.240 substance of nearly pure carbon called char, and that's what 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:29.760 charcoal ends up being, and you end up with a 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:33.560 byproduct called ash, and ashes all the stuff in wood 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:37.039 that isn't actually burnable, it just as left behind, stuff 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:40.480 like calcium. When the volatile gases get up to around 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:44.359 two d sixty degrees celsius or five hundred fahrenheit, the 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:47.839 material in the wood breaks down and recombines with oxygen, 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:51.520 forming stuff like carbon dioxide and water vapor. And we 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:56.120 call the actual process burning. And this chemical reaction generates 0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.479 a lot of heat. That heat is enough to sustain 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:02.760 the reaction as long as there's fuel and oxygen present, 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:07.320 so it will continue to burn. Until the fuel is gone. 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.600 If this didn't happen, then a fire would flare up 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:13.240 but then quickly die down because the heat would not 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:17.040 be sufficient to keep the reaction going. Not all fuels 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.720 burn the way wood does. Wood burns up and leaves 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.160 behind stuff like char and ash, and you can use 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.040 char as fuel as well, though that reaction is much 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:29.640 slower than it is with wood, but other fuels work 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.080 in a different way. Still. The basic idea is that 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:35.600 you've created a chemical reaction using a substance to produce heat, 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:38.960 and then you can harness that heat to do something useful. So, 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:42.520 for example, you could use that heat to boil water 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:45.880 to generate steam. You could channel that steam so that 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:49.040 it had to pass through a turbine and the force 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:52.680 of this escaping steam would be strong enough to rotate 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:56.240 the turbine, which could use magnets to induce electricity to 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:58.560 flow through a conductor, and bam, you've got yourself a 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:02.640 steam powered electrical generated than you can generate electricity that way. Now, 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:07.600 the entire world is largely dependent upon fossil fuels right now, 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:10.960 and this is where things are immediately tricky, because if 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:13.800 you trace back the source of fossil fuels, you get 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:18.680 to organic materials, so, in other words, biological material So 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:23.440 you could make a very technical argument that fossil fuels 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.800 are bio fuels, but that's kind of missing the point 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:30.600 and it's being super pedantic, and I'm told nobody likes 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:33.520 it when I do that, which is really big blow 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.959 to me and my personality, especially at parties. Now. See, 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.880 fossil fuels are called that because they've developed over the 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:44.080 course of millions of years under intense heat and pressure, 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:48.840 under layers and layers and layers of material, layers of rock, sand, sediments, 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:52.439 and soil. They all build up over decayed organic material. 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:56.760 Most of the fossil fuels that we end up getting 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:01.360 came out of algae that died millions of years ago, 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:04.240 uh seaweed analogy would be the two big ones, but 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:09.520 other stuff as well, and the pressure and time over 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:12.360 the course of these millions of years break down that 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:16.480 organic material and it transforms into stuff like coal and 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:20.679 oil and natural gas. But it takes millions of years 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:22.959 for that to happen. So that is why we call 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:27.560 this a non renewable resource, a non renewable source of energy. 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:32.000 It's not that they're truly non renewable, right, Not if 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:35.600 you were able to live forever in the super super 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:38.760 long term, over the course of millions and millions and 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:44.000 millions of years, you could renew those resources. But for 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:48.040 our purposes for humans, they're non renewable, I mean, for 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:51.280 all practical purposes. Because keep in mind that modern humans 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.200 have only been around a few thousand years, nowhere close 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:57.360 to a million, let alone hundreds of millions. So there's 0:09:57.360 --> 0:09:59.679 no way we could wait hundreds of millions of years 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:03.000 more were for the Earth's supply of fossil fuels to replenish. 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:06.560 By the time stuff from the dawn of humanity has 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:10.400 transformed into fossil fuels, we may very well be extinct 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:12.920 as a species, so we can't really think of it 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:17.280 as renewable. It doesn't make any sense. Oh and when 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:21.959 we say organic material, we're chiefly talking about carbon. Carbon 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:27.559 is king here. Burning these fossil fuels unleashes that carbon 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:31.360 that had previously been locked away inside coal or gas 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:35.160 or oil and deep under the Earth's surface. Now mainly 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:38.400 it gets unlocked and released in the form of carbon dioxide. 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:41.960 Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and contributes to climate 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.520 change in a really big way. So when we talk 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:50.080 about fossil fuels from an environmental perspective, uh, we're really 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.199 talking about dumping an enormous amount of carbon dioxide along 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:57.400 with some other not so healthy gases into the environment. 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:00.240 And this is carbon that had previously been saying fulle 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.720 locked away, and moreover, it's into an environment that cannot 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:08.880 easily process this excess amount of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:12.480 is part of a natural cycle on Earth, but that 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:18.200 cycle is dependent upon the steady supply of carbon diox 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:22.640 are really a stable supply, not an increasing supply, But 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:26.400 we are unleashing yet more carbon dioxide that had previously 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:29.640 been locked away down underneath the Earth. Now, on top 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:31.920 of that, there are many other things that go into 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:37.240 the extraction, processing, refining, and distribution of fossil fuels, and 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.760 all of that also adds into the environmental impact overall, 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:45.160 as well as the cost of the fossil fuel industry. 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:49.680 Some extraction methods cause greater environmental damage than others, but 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:52.800 none of them are exactly eco friendly. They are just 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:57.160 levels of bad and to be fair, biofuels are not 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:00.160 magically immune to this. We will look at how bio 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.560 fuels can also have a negative environmental impact. They do 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:08.000 not get a free pass on this um. Again, critical 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:10.000 thinking is key here. We need to look at all 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:15.160 the different factors of all the different options. Now, despite 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.440 the fact that fossil fuels are non renewable and that 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:23.280 we're dumping tons of carbon into the atmosphere every day, 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:27.840 we depend heavily on these fossil fuels. According to the 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:31.560 World Bank, fossil fuels account for about eight of all 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:35.880 energy consumption around the world, so they represent the primary 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:40.520 energy consumption path we humans rely upon today. So why 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:42.959 is that? Why do we rely upon it so heavily 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:48.720 if we see these potential negative consequences to using them. Well, 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.920 for one, these fuels are dense with energy, which means 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:56.199 you get a lot of oomph when you burn the stuff. Plus, 0:12:56.760 --> 0:13:01.640 we've built systems and infrastructures around the idea of harvesting, processing, 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:05.280 and burning these fuels. Now, some of the elements in 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:08.600 those systems we might be able to adapt so that 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:12.600 they can handle a change to a different fuel source. Right, So, 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.280 in other words, the stuff we've already established we might 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:19.880 be able to repurpose. But some things we probably couldn't repurpose, 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.880 so that would mean that switching the to a different fuel. 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:26.640 It's not just as simple as saying, hey, this stuff 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:29.520 is pretty bad for our environment, because it may also 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:33.600 mean having to make really big systemic changes across the board, 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:36.640 which is difficult and it's expensive. Now, that's not to 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:39.559 say it wouldn't be worth the investment. When you look 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:41.960 at the alternatives, especially if you look at the consequences 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:44.800 of climate change over the long term, you could make 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.719 a very convincing argument that this is an investment we 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:52.079 have to make. But it's hard to get that ball 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:56.800 rolling because when you've already got another option that's easier, 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:00.120 the tendency is to go to the easier option, and 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:06.719 even if that option isn't you know better, it's just easier. Now. 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.320 Over time, the supply of these fossil fuels will dwindle, 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:14.280 particularly as we see our consumption trends globally on the rise, 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:18.040 and we'll see the price for them go up because 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:21.600 supply will go down, demand will be increasing. In order 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:23.960 to reflect that, you're going to see prices go up, 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:25.640 not even in order to reflect it. That's just the 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.360 way the world works of economics. So We've already seen 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:32.520 global conflicts that hinge at least in part on access 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:36.200 to fossil fuels. Those will likely escalate should our dependency 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.600 remain steady while supplies decline. So in other words, we 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:43.520 can see instability across the world as a result of 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:49.720 this dependence upon fossil fuels. Okay, but what are biofuels then, well, 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:54.760 these are fuels that come from biological materials organic material biomass. 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:58.840 In other words, they can be solid fuel uh wood 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:02.960 is an example of US solid biofuel or poop you know, 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:06.560 manure that can be a solid fuel. They can also 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:10.320 be liquid fuels, such as grain alcohol also known as ethanol. 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:15.240 They can be gases like various synthetic or sin gas products, 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:19.080 which in itself is sort of a shorthand for synthetic 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:23.560 natural gas. Now, like fossil fuels, these fuels also release 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:26.920 carbon when you burn them, though not necessarily as much 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:30.800 as fossil fuels might. But more importantly, you can replenish 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:36.040 these fuels much faster by growing new biomass new feedstock, 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:40.560 and changing to a reliance on biofuels would mean having 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:43.400 to plant the stuff, and while it's growing, it's essentially 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:48.200 a carbon storage unit. It's taking carbon into itself, so 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:51.240 it's taking it out of the environment, and so you're 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:54.920 actually locking it down for the duration of growing the stuff. 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:57.840 So rather than dumping new carbon into the environment by 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.320 unlocking stuff that had previously been stored the way in 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:03.920 petroleum racle, you've got a cycle of carbon in the 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:08.320 form of your fuel crop. At least ideally so. Prehistoric 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:11.960 humans relied on biofuels like woold, but even some early 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:16.480 inventors in the era of internal combustion experimented with biofuels. 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:20.080 Rudolph Diesel, for whom the diesel engine is named, built 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:22.600 his engine to run on peanut oil. He imagined a 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.560 future in which engines would run on various vegetable oils. Now, 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:29.280 when we come back, I'll talk about more about biofuels 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:32.200 and divide them up into two big categories and talk 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.040 about some of their pros and cons. But first I 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:38.160 want to give you this word from our sponsor. Now, 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:41.800 whoever said it's all about the journey has never traveled 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:45.760 during the holidays. It's the most stressful, craziest time to 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.760 hit the road. 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Away offers free shipping and returns on 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:03.360 any order within the contiguous US, Europe, Canada, and Australia. 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:07.120 For twenty dollars off any suitcase or bag, visit away 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:10.639 travel dot com, slash tech and use promo code tech 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:14.920 during checkout. Again, for twenty dollars off any suitcase or bag, 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:18.439 visit away Travel dot com, slash tech and use promo 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:23.320 code tech during checkout. All right, let's get back into biofuels. 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:28.679 So the two main forms of biofuel are biodiesel and ethanol. Now, 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:31.240 as I just mentioned, bio diesel comes from stuff like 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:35.000 vegetable oils or fats or greases. You can run diesel 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:38.000 engines on this stuff without having to alter the engine 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:41.199 at all, which is pretty darn handy. Now, that's not 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:43.760 to say a gallon of vegetable oil has the same 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.720 energy density as a gallon of petroleum based diesel fuel, 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:50.080 but the fact that you can run diesel engines on 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:53.440 vegetable based fuels is a huge plus. You can take 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:56.040 used oil from stuff like a fryar and with a 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:58.879 minimum amount of processing, and use it as fuel for 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:02.040 something like a diesel engine. Now there's also work being 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:05.880 done on what's called third generation biodiesel, which would come 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:09.600 from stuff like algae and cyano bacteria. Now, these sources 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:13.720 could potentially yield an enormous amount of biodiesel with respect 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:16.040 to the amount of area they take up on Earth. 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:19.480 So in other words, you need to think about factors 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:25.320 like how much physical space is the uh production of 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:27.800 these biofuels going to take, because we have a limited 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:29.679 to that, right, we don't only have so much space 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:32.760 on the planet, and we have to dedicate it for 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:36.240 various things, so we have to reserve only a certain 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.040 portion of that for the production of fuel. Well, you 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:40.720 want your fuel to be dense, and you want to 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.520 be able to get a lot of it in as 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:45.760 little space as possible, so you can dedicate the rest 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:48.359 of that space for other things. That's one of the 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:52.000 potential benefits for using things like algae and sano bacteria. 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:55.240 You could grow a great deal of the stuff that 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:58.080 could yield a good amount of energy for the amount 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:01.760 of area it takes. But right now, the process to 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:05.040 convert that stuff into biodiesel is a little bit on 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:09.399 the expensive side, and that means it's not as attractive 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.640 so if that expense comes down, it could become an 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:16.800 economically viable option. But if it doesn't, then from a 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:19.399 financial standpoint, you could argue that makes more sense to 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:23.719 use a different source for biodiesel or using petroleum based diesel, 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:27.320 even though the alternative would make less use of space. 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:31.320 Biodiesel fuels do create pollutants on burning. They do not 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:34.320 burn totally clean. They aren't some sort of magic material, 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:37.960 but the amount of pollutants is significantly lower than you 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:41.040 would find with the petroleum based diesel. On top of that, 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:44.919 biodiesel is non toxic and it's also biodegradable, so the 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:48.080 fuel is safer to handle and dispose of than petroleum 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:52.280 based diesel is. There are other issues, but we'll get 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:56.600 into that. Let's look at the other type of biofuel, ethanol. 0:21:57.240 --> 0:22:00.600 So ethanol is alcohol like it. It's the toff that 0:22:00.680 --> 0:22:04.040 makes alcoholic drinks alcoholic. It's the same alcohol as you 0:22:04.040 --> 0:22:07.000 would find in beer or wine or hard liquor. It 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:10.440 comes from fermented sugars and it's used as an additive 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:13.600 in fuels around the world. The three main types that 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:16.600 you tend to find in the United States are E ten, 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:20.280 which is ten percent ethanol and nine percent gasoline E 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:24.080 fifteen which no big surprise, fiftcent ethanol and eighty five 0:22:24.119 --> 0:22:28.280 percent gasoline and e eighty five which is not eight 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:31.080 five percent ethanol. It's actually somewhere between fifty one and 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:34.080 eighty three percent depending upon the blend UH and the 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:37.159 rest of it is gasoline, so it's more than half 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:41.719 ethanol as opposed to gasoline. Now, unlike biodiesel, to use 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:44.960 ethanol and engine has to be designed to handle it 0:22:45.280 --> 0:22:48.320 above a certain percentage, otherwise you're gonna get some problems 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:50.320 as you try to burn the fuel. You might get 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:54.040 damaged to the engine or various engine components, and at 0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:57.159 lower percentages the performance issues are negligible, and so in 0:22:57.240 --> 0:23:01.720 the United States all gasoline powered ins are rated to 0:23:01.880 --> 0:23:06.360 run E ten ethanol without any real issue. Beyond that, though, 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:08.879 you would need a fuel flexible vehicle to take advantage 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:12.320 of higher percentages of ethanol without causing damage to the engine. 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:16.359 Ethanol comes from fermenting various plants. In the United States, 0:23:16.480 --> 0:23:20.160 it's almost exclusively corn, so it makes up the vast 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:23.160 majority of all feedstocks used to create ethanol in the US, 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:27.800 but farmers have also tried other stuff like sugarcane, potato skins, beats, 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:32.560