The potential sales of biofuels in NS is likely much larger than most people would guess. Green fuels could be displacing fossil fuels in all these areas:
- … fuel oils used for heating in furnaces;
- … for the engines of the largest marine cargo ships;
- … fuels for fishing vessels and other ships of similar size;
- … in all new hybrid cars or other hybrid road vehicles;
- … in EC engines in other vehicles, boats or equipment.
Main Uses of Biofuels
1st…. Anyone burning fuel oil in their furnace could replace it with some type of liquid biofuel that burns with no residue created. Surely this is not an especially difficult criteria to meet – that the fuel be green and a liquid which combusts completely.
2nd… A much larger imminent user surprisingly is the largest cargo ships, container ships. ..They consume huge amounts of fossil fuels today, but some ship owners, in particular the Danish corporation Maersk, do want to switch to renewables, and have the technical means of doing it. ..Initially, anyway, Maersk is focussed on green methanol made from CO2 and H2 gases, both greenly produced. ..An investment of several billion euros was announced in early Nov 2022 for two production facilities in Spain. EU subsidies are doubtless involved.
Dual fueling is in place on some of their ships and can be retrofitted in the others. It involves having different fuels in separate tanks, mixing them in any proportions just before getting injected into the engine’s cylinders. It allows the use of a biofuel to begin as a small proportion and become greater as its availability increases.
Nova Scotia is geographically well placed to have a fueling depot for these ships. Having one would be a great advantage for biofuel production, which could grow to be a major industry.
3rd… Fishing vessels and other ships of similar size, and larger, can also be converted to using some specific biofuels in their existing engines by using dual fueling, though likely only a select few biofuels might prove to be suitable.
4th… An external combustion (EC) engine would use any biofuel which is similar to one for a furnace. Such EC engines ought to be coming before too long, replacing the IC engines in hybrid road vehicles in particular. ..Hybrid vehicles use less fuel per distance travelled, itself is a saving, plus EC fuels should be cheaper per litre, thereby multiplying the savings for this new class of hybrids. ..Clearly, this should become a large market for green renewable liquid fuels – once such EC engines are available.
5th… Naturally, once available, then EC engines will get put in other road and off-road equipment, in ships, and later on wherever small IC engines are now used. Quieter lawn mowers and electricity generators (gensets) would result.
Production of Biofuels
Biofuels for use in today’s IC engines can be costly to make. Ethanol is widely used, but it must be pure and contain no water. Yet, when made by fermentation and obtained by distillation, it contains water and must be freed of it. ..Also, in North America it is usually starch that is fermented, which may be a more expensive starting material (substrate) than some others. ..Ethanol moreover is not energy dense. Overall, it is fair to label ethanol a poor choice as an engine fuel.
The type of engine matters when it comes to fuels. ..Those in the biggest cargo ships, though technically diesel in type, turn over slowly and have huge cylinders (a person can stand up in one), which allows the use of many fuels unsuitable for diesels with smaller cylinders.
This means biofuels much cheaper to produce can be used in these huge marine engines. Also, many biofuels suitable for EC engines may be used in them, which is a large advantage when it comes to developing a business sector for production of biofuels in Nova Scotia.
The two largest costs in making a biofuel by way of fermentation are usually the substrate used by the ferment micro~organisms (microbes), and isolation of the desired products.
First:_ substrates…..As some microbes are narrowly specific in what they will utilise while others are not, a fairly broad mix of microbes in the ferment may be a good strategy to employ. The rumen of a dairy cow can be the guide here. Grasses and sedges, maybe kelps, are the sort of cheap substrates to be used. ..Here, however, it is organic acids which would be made, and mainly they can be butanoic or longer acids.
Now:_ isolation of fermenter products… The usual approach of extraction or distillation, or both, generally is expensive with little prospect of becoming much less costly. But a different approach changes matters completely, wherever it can be used.
When the desired products are alcohols or ketones (or a diol), then adding sufficient salt (either NaCl or seasalt) will cause these solvents to float atop the salty solution of fermenter debris. The top layer may be removed and distilled to assure having pure product with no salt in it.
Even when organic acids are to be removed, a suitable solvent can carry these above the salty layer. ..|<note:_ These may be made into their respective alcohols by hydrogenation, which is a more intelligent use of H2 than exporting same, as the federal gov’t seems to think a great notion.>|
After isolation of products, the salty layer remaining can simply be flushed into the sea, where its plume soon disperses and the debris in it provides food for filtre feeders, plankton, and fishes. ..It will augment the local seafoods harvest, especially if ponds of seawater are created for the purpose, if shellfish (as an example) are being grown in them. Cumberland county conveniently has salt underlying much of it , which can be solution mined. ..Obviously, this is far cheaper product isolation from a ferment than is usual.
A specific biofuel
Acetone or butanone, which are ketones, will combine readily with the lower alcohols (methanol. ethanol, or propanol) to form a larger molecule that is more energy dense and a decent gasoline. This combines two alcohols per ketone molecule, squeezing out one HOH. (see US Patents 2.827.494 and .495).
Though a gasoline, this sort of fuel is likely best used in a large marine diesel engine, which fuel market is very large and will be available to NS biofuel producers.
Now a diol is a dual alcohol and will itself combine with a ketone to produce an entity that is a good gasoline for today’s road vehicle engines, plus more stable than using two molecules of an alcohol.. ..2,3.Butanediol combined with butanone is an especially good choice, because the butanone is readily made from this diol, which itself is a ferment product using microbes which utilise a fairly wide selection of substrates. ..In short, a gasoline for today’s cars can result by way of a single ferment and some processing.
So the opportunity to create a family firm centred biofuels industry in Nova Scotia exists, which is a better way of doing it politically and economically than going the route of large corporate development.