Lately, researchers are looking for all possible alternative energy sources, due in large part to the global energy crisis and the condition of the environment. First on the list is to replace traditional fossil fuels with alternative and renewable energy.
The main contenders for fuel substitutes are biomass fuels. Biomass fuels are derived from organic plant matter. Ethanol-based biofuels are extracted from corn. Biodiesel is mainly made up of used vegetable oil and fat. Jatropha oil, which comes from the seeds of the Jatropha plant, is also being used to make biofuels. Cellulosic biofuel is now added to the list.
Cellulosic biofuel is very revolutionary in biofuels; this is because it is not plant-specific like with Jatropha and can be generated from living and dead organic plant matter rather than requiring crops to be grown specifically for the purpose of producing cellulosic biofuel, like ethanol needs corn.
The carbon content in cellulose is what makes it a good candidate in the search for biofuels. Cellulose is the most abundant form of carbon present in biomass and represents around 50% of its weight. Cellulose can be found in most plants without the need for land space or water for irrigation, which gives cellulose biofuel its appeal.
Cellulose is a polysaccharide composed of a carbon polymer of six sugars. Due to its composition and abundance, cellulosic biofuel is an attractive possibility for mass biofuel production.
NASA researchers are further exploring cellulosic biofuel as a viable fuel source. They are investigating more efficient processes to convert cellulose into sugar. Once cellulose is converted to its sugar-based form, it can be used for other purposes, such as chemical agents, foods, and cellulosic biofuel.
However, the conversion to sugar requires about 50 hours for the process to take place. Take the labor and energy costs to cover it, and you can see how expensive it can get. With time also come higher production costs. If it were possible to reduce this process to 5 hours, cellulosic biofuel would become profitable enough to be competitive in a global market.
What the scientists hope to achieve is to refine the process to make it easier to extract the complex sugars from the cellulose. Because plant cell walls were designed in nature to be robust and resist the elements, they make it difficult to break down and remove. The researchers hope to make extraction easier by engineering plant cell walls.
Another obstacle in the production of cellulosic biofuels involves improving the efficiency of enzymes. They plan to mimic the behavior of enzymes in animals that are the most efficient at breaking down cell walls, such as herbivores like cows and sheep, which they believe is the key to profitable cellulosic biofuel production.
Some of the things we can do to help protect ourselves from rising oil prices is conserve what we have now, use less, and change our energy consumption patterns. We need to look for alternative energy sources when they become available to us. If we do these things, cellulosic biofuel could be on the market in as little as 5 years.
