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Fuel For Thought: Students Look For Alternative Power
By Mr Ethanol | November 26, 2007
Gloucester County Times:
Imagine if Americans could power their cars with recycled office paper and grass clippings.
A group of Rowan University students and professors are treading their way through the corn maze of alternative fuels as they try to find a way to turn these biodegradable resources into fuel.
The United States uses around 150 billion gallons of fuel a year and about 4 percent of that is ethanol, an alternative fuel made from corn, said Brian Lefebvre, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at Rowan.
But if the country is ever going to reduce its reliance on foreign fuels, it’s unlikely that ethanol made from corn will be the answer, he said.
“There’s not enough corn in the U.S. to make enough ethanol to replace our gasoline needs,” Lefebvre said.
And even if there was, it would disrupt the earth’s life cycle.
“Cows like to eat corn and chickens like to eat corn, and people like to eat cows and chickens and corn,” Lefebvre said. “So our purpose is looking beyond corn as a feedstock, like corn stalks or wood chips, or grass clippings or recycled office paper.”
The project, which is in its fourth year, is made up of a team of chemical engineering students and biological science majors.
Topics: Biofuel, Energy, News, Positives |
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