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Workshop 1: Sustainability

Name: Chung Man Kendrew Lok

Matric Number: S1451713


Topic: (please state name of topic)
01 Biofuels and Biomass

Aims of To raise awareness of technologies that are sustainable.


workshop: To promote collaborative work in producing a consensus view of the key issues
that have been identified.
To communicate findings in a concise and coherent manner.

Potential for biomass/biofuel power generation in the UK


According to energy-uk.org1, majority of the electricity production in 2010 is from burning fossil fuel,
16% from Nuclear power plant. Only 7% of the electricity is generated through renewable energy
sources, including biomass.

According to another document released by the UK government 2, 12% of UKs energy is from low
carbon sources. Within the 12% of energy supplied from low carbon sources, 2.9% of the energy is
generated from bioenergy, which is the second highest contributor. It is also shown in the document
that bioenergy, which includes sources such as landfill gas, plant biomass, or waste combustion,
takes up a total of 73.7% of renewable energy source that has been consumed.

From a news article published on The University of Manchester website 3, it is said that UK could
potentially generate 44% of its energy from biomass by the year 2050. The research identifies that
residue from agriculture, forestry as well as food waste could all be used as biomass sources to
generate bioenergy.

Since the research also suggests that home-grow biofuel may contribute to increase of energy
generated from biomass, education on this subject area, such as ways of identifying usable waste or
processing procedures, needs to be provided to the public for free in order to maximise the potential
output of home-grow biofuel. If homes were taught to produce biodiesel from food waste, then not
only will this method be able to reduce demand for petroleum, it is also much more environmental
friendly as food waste, especially vegetable oil is produced through using the current CO 2 in the air
for plant growth.

Biodiesel from used cooking oil


Through a chemical reaction called transesterification using alkaline catalyst, it is possible to allow
triglyceride molecules, which is the main part of vegetable oil, to react with methanol molecules to
produce by-product glycerol and useful fatty acid methyl esters product that can be used along with
petroleum in engines.

The advantage of biodiesel from used cooking oil is that the vegetable oil came from plants that grow
using photosynthesis, which allows plants to convert carbon dioxide into useful nutrient for growth.
This means that no new carbon dioxide is introduced into the current atmosphere, instead this
process recycles what is already in the air, as results shown in journal by Edgar Lotero et al 4.

This method also provide another environmental benefit which is to reduce the amount of waste
cooking oil being released into sewage, which may cause problem such as blocked sewage as
reported in a news5.

Nonetheless, production of biodiesel from vegetable oil has many limitations, for example, to
maximise product yield, high quality sources is required as high fatty acid content may neutralise
base catalyst to produce soap during the transesterification when waste vegetable oil is used 6. Due to
the limitations, biodiesel has a high cost of production, which made it become hard for it to become
commercialized at this point, according to Y. Zhang et al7.

Another issue with this is the might be the way of collecting waste cooking oil from stores and
households. In order to maximise sources of waste cooking oil, a system of collection has to be set
up, which would add an additional cost to the production of biodiesel.
However, when this technology or processing method becomes extremely efficient it will help to
reduce our reliance on fossil fuel, as well as reduce reliance on imported energy from foreign
countries. Biofuel may also reduce the cost of transportation when it becomes abundant as well as
easily accessible. Biofuel is also considered as a renewable energy source since it takes a much
shorter time to grow plants for oil than it takes for fossil fuel to be produced.

It is worth noting that although biofuel is good for the environment as well as having the ability to
reduce reliance of fossil fuel, however biofuel production may increase the current food price as
vegetable or plant oil is used and therefore there will be a decrease in food source, this could
potentially lead to a shortage of food if we become too focused on energy production instead of food
production.
Reference list:
1
Energy UK. "Electricity Generation | Energy UK." Electricity Generation. Energy UK, n.d. Web. 29
Sept. 2014. <http://www.energy-uk.org.uk/energy-industry/electricity-generation.html>.
[This source is reliable as it is provided by an energy company in UK]
2
Publication, A. National Statistics. UK ENERGY IN BRIEF 2013 (n.d.): n. pag. A National Statistics
Publication, 25 July 2013. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.
<https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/224130/uk_e
nergy_in_brief_2013.PDF>.
[This source is reliable as the data within the document is provided by the UK government]
3
"UK failing to Harness Its Bioenergy Potential." Ed. Aeron Haworth. The University of Manchester,
19 Feb. 2014. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. <http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/article/?
id=11612>.
[This source should be reliable as it is publish by the University of Manchester and the writer
sourced another journal in their news article]
4
Lotero, Edgar, Yijun Liu, Dora E. Lopez, Kaewta Suwannakarn, David A. Bruce, and James G.
Goodwin. "Synthesis of Biodiesel via Acid Catalysis." Industrial & Engineering Chemistry
Research 44.14 (2005): 5353-363. Web. 29 Sept. 2014
[Reliable, this is a research journal formally published.]
5
Vidal, John. "Fatberg Ahead! How London Was Saved from a 15-tonne Ball of Grease." The
Guardian. N.p., 6 Aug. 2013. Web. 29 Sept. 2014
[Reliable, as the source of news article is a major news provider in the UK]
6
Singh, A., et al. "Process optimization of biodiesel production using alkaline catalysts." Applied
Engineering in Agriculture 22.4 (2006): 597-600. 29 Sept. 2014
[Reliable, the journal is formally published by American Society of Agricultural and Biological
Engineers]
7
Zhang, Y., M.a Dub, D.d Mclean, and M. Kates. "Biodiesel Production from Waste Cooking Oil: 2.
Economic Assessment and Sensitivity Analysis." Bioresource Technology 90.3 (2003): 229-
40. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
[Should be reliable as it is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published under Bioresource
Technology]

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