Biomass Fuel and Electric Car

 

The world should be more green, that is the hope of all who understand and care the environment. There have been many concrete actions to continue to make the world green or green again. Fossil fuels are environmental damage factors that have made CO2 concentrations on the earth more than 400 ppm. The impact is climate change and global warming, and this is the focus of current environmental improvements. In addition, the practice of deforestation is another factor that makes the earth more barren and arid. The impact is very large on the ecosystem chain including human food and the potential for natural disasters.

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In an era of approximately 10 years Indonesia will run out of reserves of oil and now it is already a net importer of oil because its oil production has not been able to meet domestic consumption. Doesn't Indonesia still have gas reserves, so that it can be used for the next 50 years? Although it is technically very feasible, but the use of natural gas replacing petroleum fuels is not a solution to environmental problems or not in line with the world direction for environmental improvement. This is because both fuel, oil and natural gas are fossil fuels or positive carbon fuels that contribute to increasing the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. So the use of natural gas is not a solution.

Electric cars are an effort to reduce or eliminate CO2 emissions in the transportation sector. At present many electric cars have been produced to replace petroleum-powered cars or hybrid cars as the "bridge" of the transition. Some electric car manufacturers today include Tesla, Toyota, BMW, Mitsubishi, Ford and so on. Electric cars so far have received positive responses from various circles, but because the selling price is still relatively expensive and the availability of battery charging units is still minimal, the users are still limited. But it could be that in the near future it will soon flood the streets moreover if environmental policies for reducing and limiting fossil energy are increased.

The fundamental question of environmental aspect is where does the electric car get electricity as its energy source? If the electric car gets electricity from fossil-fueled power plants such as coal, natural gas and so on, it's just a lie because it only moves the CO2-emitting location from cars to power plants. Biomass, especially wood or agricultural wastes can be an energy source, especially production the electricity. This means that the biomass must be converted into electricity and used to charge the electric car's battery.

Power gasifier, stirling engine, ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) and so on are technologies to convert the biomass into electrical energy. Biomass power plants such as the power gasifier and stirling engine can be small in size so that they can be widely spread throughout the country. A lot of energy plantations will be created for this as well as the utilization of agricultural wastes is also increasingly optimized so as not to pollute the environment anymore. Whereas ash from burning can be returned to plantations and agriculture as fertilizer.

The above is technically different with below sentences from using a gasifier or stirling engine for driving a vehicle, even though the environmental aspects are the same. In the era of the oil crisis a few decades ago the gasifier was installed on the back of the car to supply the gas as fuel for the car. Whereas in the stirling engine because it is an external combustion engine or heat engine, there is a heat combustion or production unit that is used for the energy source of the stirling engine. In electric cars there is no need to install a gasifier or heat producer, but enough to install a battery as a generator of electricity which is converted into mechanical energy.

The use of biomass as a fuel source can be made by wood chip or wood pellet depending on technical and economic factors. When the distance to the power plant is close so that the transportation costs are cheap, then the biomass is quite made of wood chips while if the distance is far, then wood pellets will save the transportation costs. In the end so that this electric car is truly an environmental solution, so the energy source must also be from renewable sources and biomass is the most potential energy source in Indonesia. Integration of energy and livestock plantations will be an accurate solution and will truly make the world more green, for more details to read here. In addition, biomass energy sources, especially wood, are very feasible to be developed in Indonesia and superior to Solar PV, read more here.