CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1. Renewable Energy

Renewable energy sources on Earth provide alternatives and solutions to the
major circumstances that humans are experiencing today. Renewable resources [6]
(such as solar radiation, wind, and biomass) will replenish themselves within lifetime
and may be used with suitable technology to produce sufficient energy quantities. In
fact, renewable resources are more uniformly distributed than nuclear and fossil fuels.
From one perspective of energy systems, renewable resources on Earth is nearly
absolute, in which some of these energy sources have been used by humans for over
five thousand years. Only 0.02% of this energy system is currently managed by human
society. Moreover, renewable energy constitutes about 25% of the worldwide energy
supply. One of the major portions of this renewable energy is in the form of biomass
energy, mostly in food crops or any organic material derived from living entities. A global
average of 222 W/cap., the combustion of biomass into new energy forms is still the
leading use of renewable energy. However, many industrialized countries still prefer
more efficient energy forms rather than biomass usage. [1]

2.2 Biomass Energy as Alternative Fuel

All plants and animals in the ecological system that are rich in carbon, but not yet
a fossil, are considered as biomass. Also, excrement and biological waste from
households and industry are considered forms of biomass.
If biomass has a high water content, such as liquid manure or freshly harvested
plants, then it is best to process it in which it will provide about 70% of the energy
coming from the combustion of dry material. If biomass will be made into liquid fuel,
ethanol or methanol, then it is best to process it through fermentation. [7]

Biomass energy derived from wood, composts, and residues from crops remains
a primary source of energy in developing countries. It also serves as main and
secondary fuel source in specific countries. In Brazil, biomass as sugarcane is
converted to ethanol. In some areas, biomass as dung or manure has been converted
as fuel source. In the United States, biomass-based fuel as ethanol are primarily made
from corn. [2]

2.3 Ethanol and Comparison of Different Ethanols

Ethanol (C2H5OH) is a clear, colorless, flammable chemical. It is also
biodegradable, high-octane chemical compound made from the sugars found in crops
including corn, sugar beets, sugar cane, and from almost any plant matter capable of
fermentation. Ethanol has been produced and used from several industrial applications
from detergents and pharmaceuticals to alcoholic beverages, and has been used as
transportation fuel for more than a century. During 1897, Nicholas Otto used ethanol in
the internal combustion engine [21]. However, ethanol did not have a significant impact
in the fuel market until the 1970s, when two oil crisis occurred in 1973 and 1979.
Ethanol has been a major actor in the market as an alternative fuel as well as an
oxygenated additive for gasoline [3].
Ethanol is the most commonly used biofuel produced from crops (corn,
sugarcane, and other grains). Ethanol is added to gasoline to reduce the pollution from
exhausts of automobiles. The reason why ethanol is expensive compared to gasoline is
that cellulosic materials have high recalcitrance (resistance to decomposition or
alteration). [6]
Ethanol has been used as fuel or additive since the early 1900s during the time
of Henry Ford and his creation, the Ford Model T. In the United States, almost every
gallon of gasoline consumed contains fuel ethanol. Unlike gasoline which came from
fossil fuels, ethanol is biodegradable and it can quickly break down into harmless
substances if spilled. Using it as additive to gasoline, about 10%, will yield some
advantages compared to gasoline only. [8]

Nowadays, ethanol is the most commonly used liquid biofuel. It is produced by

fermentation of sugars, which can be obtained from natural sugars, starches, or
cellulosic biomass. The most common feedstock of ethanol is sugarcane or sugar beet,
and the second common feedstock is cornstarch. As a matter of fact, it is the oldest
synthetic organic chemical used by mankind. [6] United states has the highest global
ethanol production with 43.8% in 2008 while Brazil in second place with 33.9%.
Furthermore, [9] USA uses corn for ethanol production while Brazil uses sugarcane.

2.4 Bioethanol
Ethanol production is derived from several feedstocks. It can be made
synthetically from oil and natural gas, or biologically from sugar, starch, and
lignocellulosic materials, referred to as fermentative ethanol or bioethanol. Feedstocks
sources including grains, molasses, sugarcane and sugar beets contain simple sugars
and polymers that are necessary for bioethanol conversion. In contrast with the group of
sugarcane and beets, starch and cellulose (mainly corn and other grains) are usually
more difficult to convert into ethanol. In resemblance, [27] both sources are called as
renewable feedstock, which means it cannot be easily depleted by consumption.
The production of ethanol in 2014 increased by about 6.2 billion liters, with a total
produce of 94 billion liters/year at the end of the period. [23] On the other hand, ethanol
as part of the world ethanol production [22] was less than 4% in 2006, down from 7% in
the 1990s. The increase in oil price induces a decrease in ethanol price, which affects
the economic competition of synthetic ethanol production. The increase in ethylene
prices in 2005 was $1000 per ton, while ethanol costs $500 per ton during that time.
Furthermore, the theoretical yield of ethanol from ethylene is only 1.64 kg/kg, and so the
price of raw materials (ethylene) was higher than that of the product (ethanol).
Seemingly, bioethanol is more economically feasible to produce rather than synthetic.
The worlds bioethanol supply is mainly derived from US corn or Brazilian
sugarcane. Corn and other grain prices have soared internationally, and the corn-toethanol industry has been an ongoing issue for the increase of food prices worldwide.

These facts are supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations and the World Bank, in which they stated that one of the reasons why theres
soaring

of

world

food

prices

is

the

increased

demand

for

biofuels.

[6]

Cellulose from biomass are the key materials in ethanol production, The initial
process would require hydrolysis (can be acid or enzymatic hydrolysis) to convert it to
glucose (C6H12O6) before fermentation to ethanol.

2.5 Ethanol Processing

The general process of biomass conversion is mainly through fermentation. The
sugar derived from feedstocks are being fermented by microorganisms such as
Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a gram strain fermentative yeast. Ethanol and other byproducts including carbon dioxide are the conversion products.
The necessary processes in converting sugar from starchy raw materials are
usually milling, and hydrolysis. Specifically, converting starch into sugar monomers
would require a two-stage hydrolysis treatment. The first stage involves liquefaction of
large starch molecules to oligomers, and then second stage is saccharification process
of the oligomers to sugar monomers.
Sugar compounds mainly hexose and pentose found in sugarcane and
molasses, and starchy materials (e.g. corn, wheat) are the raw components used for
bioethanol production. Microorganisms that produces ethanol utilizes general sugars
that includes glucose, fructose, galactose, and mannose and also number of
disaccharides. Microorganisms act as catalyst in the process.
The theoretical yield of ethanol is 0.51 g/g if entire sugar is converted into
ethanol. This means that if a 1.0 g of glucose is fermented, the ethanol yield will be just
0.51 g. However, the actual yield of ethanol is 90-95% of theoretical yield, due to
conversion of by-products such as glycerol and acetic acid.
On the other hand, pentose has a relatively larger yield than hexose. It would
require two process namely pentose phosphate pathway and glycolysis.

Six-carbon sugar, or hexose is readily fermented to ethanol by common yeast.

Five-carbon sugar (pentose), requires special organisms that has been genetically
engineered that can ferment it easily to ethanol, and the process of conversion is
relatively slow compared to hexose. Pentose molecules comprise a good percentage of
available sugars and so the ability for ethanol recovery is essential, considering the
efficiency and process economics.
The flow of ethanol conversion starts from material processing then general
biochemical conversion. The raw materials are milled and reduced into appropriate size
(as large polymer structures) for pretreatment or liquefaction, which reduces the
structure of the sugar polymer into smaller ones. The conversion starts with either acid
or enzymatic hydrolysis (also known as saccharification) into sugar solution in which it is
optionally detoxified for fermentation. During fermentation process, yeasts are
introduced into the system and so produces a fermentative solution that is distilled,
solid-separated, evaporated and dried. The products of these procedure are ethanol,
CO2 and wastewater. The produced ethanol has a 90-95% concentration, and so further
dehydration is conducted to convert it into a saturated ethanol. [3]

2.6 Application of Ethanol

Applications of ethanol has very limited or almost no net emission of CO 2
and is able to fulfill the Kyoto Climate Change Protocol issued in 1997 to decrease the
net emission of CO2. One benefit of ethanol is the reduction of carbon monoxide
emissions and other toxic pollutants. It also keeps engines to run smoothly without the
aid of any chemical additives. Ethanol is derived from crops, which naturally intakes
CO2 and releases O2. As a result, it reduces greenhouse gas emissions as the
production increases. [19]
An experiment conducted in Brazil, by CENBIO (Brazilian Reference Center on
Biomass), named as BEST (BioEthanol for Sustainable Transport) Project that targeted
the promotion of ethanol usage to replace diesel in the metropolitan public transport.

They evaluated ethanol usage in the metropolitan transport scene as replacement to

diesel fuel through a comparative study of the operational output of the experimental
fleet taking as reference an equivalent diesel powered bus. Scania, a Swedish
company, developed an ethanol engine by converting it from a diesel engine. The
manufacturer indicated that the reworking of the diesel engine to ethanol did not require
substantial changes. The modifications were increase in compression rate of 28:1 and
higher volumetric capacity of electronic injectors. In addition to this information, the
engine to be used also attends to the EURO 5 specifications. Their study mentioned
that the use of ethanol in these engines required an additive of 5% because ethanol
lack the technology of diesel fuel which is the auto-ignition property. The project was
also conducted simultaneously in Sweden. Their data showed that the mean
consumption of the ethanol buses was about 0.697L/km; on the other hand, diesel
buses mean consumption was 0.413L/km; the costs of the distance travelled were alike,
about 0.373/km for ethanol and 0.376/km for diesel. In the environmental viewpoint,
the study projected a decrease of more than 80% of the emissions of gases that causes
global warming, 90% of particulate material and 62% of NOx released in the
atmosphere. Also, there will be no Sulphur emission that causes acid rain. The
reduction of local pollutants emission reduces the occurrence of cardio-respiratory
diseases, that must be taken into account, mainly in the metropolitan regions where the
population is plentiful, there is great concentration of vehicles and atmospheric pollution
sources. They concluded that the experimental bus consumes about 60% extra ethanol
than diesel to go through the same distance. Although it consumes more ethanol fuel,
the price difference of diesel fuel and ethanol fuel is about 50% with ethanol being the
cheaper one. [9]
Another consideration of the study includes the adaptation of the alternative fuel
with respect to technology. As application, the specific combination or mixture of ethanol
and gasoline is important to the engines performance and limits when having a blended
fuel. Different patents have been made, engine systems for multi-fluid operations [24]
and detection methods for troubleshooting difficulties during engine start-up [25]. Some
improvements have been made in the fuel intake such as variable direct injection
system that controls the amount of ethanol that mixes with the gasoline, with automatic

shutdown whenever engine experiences deceleration, thus, promotes increased

efficiency [26]. Moreover, a paper published paper from Kansas State University which
talks about converting gasoline engines to ethanol engines. According to the research,
more Ethanol fuel should be injected by the EFI to the engine for it to run normally. This
means that Ethanol ready cars hold their injector open longer, have a larger set of
injectors or re-jetting for carbureted engines. One problem of using an ethanol fuel for
a normal gasoline engine is that the ethanol fuel degrades the materials of some of the
parts in the engine like rubber and plastics. [4] Some innovations include automotive
vehicles that allows different blends with an instrumentation that can measure the
percentage of ethanol added in the fuel. The measurement (in percent ethanol and
gasoline in the tank) is then used to determine the air to fuel ratio control. This certain
type of device has types of sensors that are called fuel composition sensors (either
hardware or software). [5]

2.7. Related Ethanol-application Studies

In a recent study focused on reducing the concentration of toxic components in
the combustion products as well as through the use of renewable, sustainable and nonpolluting fuel to reduce fuel consumption. [10] Stringent pollution control regulations and
energy demand growth in the world result of technological development, the promotion
of research on alternative fuels [11]
High-calorie ethanol evaporation and their high-octane characteristic results in
high compression ratio, preferable for high-output SI engine fuel use. High octane fuel
allows eloquent increase in compression ratio and high heat of evaporation which gives
fuel - air charge cooling and an increase in density, and thus significantly increase the
mass. [12] Alcohol - gasoline blended fuel can effectively reduce emissions without
significant modification of the engine design. [13,14]
As ethanol blends increases it cause a slight increase in the engine output torque
and a significant increase in fuel consumption (SFC). CO and HC emissions are greatly
reduced and significantly reduced CO2 and NOx emissions. It also said that increase in

ethanol blends results in high engine compression ratios, operating without knocking
occurrence. [15]
As the ethanol content is increased, fuel power is also increases when compared
with E0 (zero alcohol content) fuel, For E10 (10% Ethanol Content) 1.2% of power is
increased, for E20 (20% Ethanol Content) 2.5% of power is increased, and for E30
(30% Ethanol Content) 4% of power is increase. This is because ethanol is a
oxygenated fuel, it is possible for a perfect combustion to be attained, ethanol also have
a higher heat of vaporization compared to gasoline. High heat of evaporation can
provide fuel-air change to cool and density to increase, so volumetric efficiency is
increased ultimately power increases slightly. [12]
As the SFC increase the ethanol content will also increase. The heating value of
the ethanol is lower than the gasoline resulting in the increase of 4%. 8.5%, 13.2% in
the SFC when using E10, E20, and E30 respectively. CO emissions is reduced because
of the mixing of ethanol to the gasoline. The decrease in CO emissions are about 3.8%,
3.36%, 2.9%, and 2.47% for E0, E10, E20, and E30 respectively [15]
Carbon atom content of the ethanol is lower than the gasoline resulting to a
decrease in the CO2 emission. CO2 is reduced about 13.5%, 13.1%. 12.6%, and 12.2%
for E0, E10, E20, and E30 fuel respectively. [16]
Increase of ethanol content in the blend fuel up to 30%, the CO and HC
emissions decrease because ethanol contains an oxygen atom, It can be treated as a
partially oxidized hydrocarbon.
Ethanol has a higher heat of vaporization than gasoline fuel. So the temperature
of the air-fuel mixture at the intake stroke decreases. This also reduces the temperature
of the combustion thus the NOx emissions of the engine also reduces. [17] The CO
emissions of the engine is dependent on the air-fuel ratio. The emission of CO is
reduced when ethanol content of the fuel increases, this is due to the oxygen
enrichment of the ethanol fuel. A comparison of the compression ratio using E30 fuel
tells us that a compression ratio of 8:1 produces 8% less CO than a ratio of 6:1. [15] A
comparison of the compression ratio using E30 fuel tells us that a compression ratio of
8:1 produces 8% less CO than a ratio of 6:1. CO decreases as CO2 increases with the
increase in engine speed. Both carbon compounds are complementary with each other.

Emission of CO2 is dependent on the air fuel ratio of the engine and the concentration
of the emission of CO. [16]
At the same compression ratio (6:1) NOx emission in E30 fuel is decreased in
about 23% compared to E0 fuel. As the compression ratio increases from 6:1 to 8:1
about 9% NOx emission is increased for E30 fuel. An increase in combustion
temperature is also an increase in the compression ratio thus also increasing the NOx
emission. [15]
HC emission in E30 fuel is 19% lower than E0 fuel at the compression ratio of
6:1. As the compression ratio increase from 6:1 to 8:1 for E30 fuel, the HC emission is
increased by 9%. The reason for this is that when HC emission is increased, the
compression ratio and surface volume ratio is also increased. [18]
In early 1826, many internal combustion engines already ran on ethyl alcohol and
turpentine. (Cummins, 2002) Renewable fuel was already a hit in the early years
because there was an tax exemption on these types of renewable energy. As years past
by the development of alternative fuels were given attention. The military in Germany in
the early 1900s was using 80% alcohol 20% benzol powered engines. (Hamlin, 1915) In
the same era car companies were already developing engines that uses alternative fuel
such as the Deutz Gas Engine were 10% of their produced vehicles were designed to
run on denatured alcohol. (Kovarik, 1998)
In year 1933, a survey was made to the people who uses alternative fuel
powered vehicles and comparing it to the straight gasoline powered engine. Their
feedback of the alternative fuel powered engine on the score of starting, acceleration,
smoothness of operation, anti-knock, power and general motor performance, shows that
they will still consider using alternative fuel than the straight gasoline powered engine.
They agreed that the alternative fuel engine was more superior than the other. Not only
performance wise but also the effect it gives to the environment. (Whelpton, 1933)
Alternative fuels are the future of our generation today because of the depleting
natural resources and ozone layer. Engine modification will be just minor because only
few factors such as the compression ratio that is responsible for the combustion of the
engine needs to be altered. Each fuel has its own unique properties (heating value,

combustible temperature, etc.) which the engine will adjust in order to achieve
maximum fuel efficiency.

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