-
Biofuels were humankind’s first liquid fuels
• Vegetable oils and fats lit up streets in Europe and America
• Alcohol-burning stoves warmed homes
• It is a significant source of fuel for lighting and heating. -
Biofuels and oils become cost-competitive
• In Europe and America, where whale oil is used for running engines, price of Biofuels became significantly low compared to whale oils. Its production increased as a result and whale hunting became less.
• Whale oil: $1.30-$2.50 a gallon, 18 million gallons a year
• Camphene & Alcohol: 50 cents a gallon; 150 million gallons a year
• Kerosene: 60 cents a gallon, 200 million gallons a year -
First spark of an idea of the automobile engine
• First spark-ignition piston engine using alcohol invented by Samuel Morey / 1826
• Nikolaus Otto develops Otto-cycle engine to run on ethanol / 1860
• It is significant event because aside from lighting and heating, biofuels were then used to generate motion which is very much needed in factories and related businesses. Thus increasing their efficiencies and production capabilities. -
Germany creates world’s first large-scale biofuels industry
• Kaiser Wilhelm encourages use of alcohol fuel from potatoes over oil use
• 72,000 distilleries produce 27 million gallons / 1906
• Ethanol-fueled lamps, water heaters and other home appliances in use
• Biofuels became primary source of energy for homes and factories. -
America moves toward biofuels with repeal of alcohol tax
• Distilled spirits tax of 1862 repealed by Teddy Roosevelt / 1906
• Alcohol production slows; Prohibition movement grows / 1912-1932
• World War I oil shortage fear moves Henry Ford to create tractors and Model T’s designed to burn alcohol as well as gasoline
• Given the government incentives on biofuels, the biofuel production became significant industry -
The rise of the internal combustion engine
• Rudolph Diesel finds that peanut, castor and palm oils can compete with “heavy” fuel from petroleum / 1912
• Henry Ford envisions enough alcohol yield from crops such as potatoes to drive farm machinery for 100 years / 1925
•
• More and more machineries and cars use biofuels -
Other countries started the use of sugarcane for producing ethanol
• Brazil, Philippines use sugarcane processing to make alcohol biofuels to counter high cost of gasoline imports
• First biofuel plant built in Brazil (1927). By 1937, ethanol is 7% of Brazil’s fuel consumption
• 30 industrial nations had tax incentives or mandatory ethanol blending programs by 1932 (tropical countries, Europe)
• The production and use of biofuel became worldwide. -
Depression, war bring attention to farm crops
• Ford-backed “Agrol” ethanol developed in Kansas for blending with gasoline. But by 1939, ethanol firms—fought by oil industry—went bankrupt / 1930s
• Ethanol plants reopened for war effort, to make fuels, chemicals and rubber / 1940s
• The oil industry have seen biofuel production as a threat to theirs and so tried to kill the biofuel industry -
The arrival of cheap abundant oil from the middle east
• Over 25 years after World War II, global oil consumption grows by 5½ times, much of it cheap oil from the Mideast
• 12 nations form OPEC to control oil prices and payments to producing countries / 1969
• The petroleum based energy sources specially from the middle east became the primary source of fuel significantly under cutting the biofuel production -
An international gasoline crisis
• After attack on Israel, Arab nations impose oil embargo, lasting 6 months. Price of oil quadrupled, consumer gas lines grew / 1973
• Strike in Iran reduces world oil exports by 5%; more gas lines / 1978
• World scrambles for oil alternatives; Brazil mandates and subsidizes ethanol blending, U.S. looks to corn-based ethanol
• Biofuels became an alternative source of fuel given that the world became reliant on middle east petroleum. -
The (first) golden age of ethanol
• President Jimmy Carter offers tax incentives for ethanol production, excludes Latin American exports to U.S. / 1980
• 163 ethanol plants in the U.S. produce more than 595 million gallons, to mix with gasoline as octane booster / 1984
• Ethanol blend helped with the dwindling supplies of petroleum based fuels. -
Biofuels ride roller-coaster of unstable markets
• Price of oil drops in late ‘80s to $12 a barrel; ethanol industry nears bankruptcy
• Lead and air toxics barred from gasoline (Clean Air Act); corn-based ethanol blend is popular alternative /1990
• Biofuel production specially from corn, competed with food production and raise the issue of food vs fuel -
Crop-based fuels return amid uncertainty
• United Nations agency calls for 5-year moratorium on food-based biofuels, fearing loss of valuable farmland (2007); food vs. fuel debate begins
• Rising price of oil, plus rise in atmospheric carbon from fossil fuel use, brings more interest to renewable plant-based fuels
• U.S. Ethanol production reaches 10.9 billion gallons / 2009
• Biofuel has now established itself as a significant alternative to non renewable resources such as fossil fuel -
Biofuels: Where we are today
• Total world biofuels production, 2012: 19.5 billion gallons (13.3 billion in U.S.)
• Renewable Fuel Standard 2 in U.S. mandates annual 18 billion gallons of biofuel by 2014, 36 billion by 2022
• 40 nations have policies or mandates urging alternative fuel development
• First commercial cellulosic ethanol plants open in 2013
• Biofuels has been seen as a green source of energy and is renewable.
