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Current status and trends in the production and use of biofuels

In recent decades, the legislators of the European Union, the United States of America and Brazil are world leaders regarding the promotion and mandatory use of biofuels for vehicles. Thus, the main biofuel in Brazil and the United States is ethanol derived from sugar cane or corn, while in the EU there are so-called FAME biodiesel (Fatty Acid Methyl Ester), derived from vegetable oils (mainly rapeseed and palm trees), and ethanol, partly in a form of the ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE) due to its application advantages. Although the manufacturers of the conventional internal combustion engines and cars emphasize many disadvantages of using a mixture of gasoline and diesel fuels with biofuels, a mandatory share of biofuels in fossil fuels grows recently. Usually, as explanation the environmental protection (often falsely shown), the use of renewable energy sources (biomass), as well as some strategic reasons (less dependence on imported raw materials, employment, development of neglected areas, etc.) are specified. However, in order to avoid negative impacts of fuel production from food as raw materials, the policy of incentives is slowly changing in favor of technologies for production of fuels from waste biomass, mainly based on the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. Also, production of hydrocarbon (CH) biodiesel obtained by hydrotreating vegetable oils increases and from the viewpoint of the application in the current car it shows considerable advantages over FAME biodiesel. This work will provide a concise but comprehensive overview of the current status and trends regarding the production and use of. Special attention will be given to our own results and modeling of a mixture of gasoline and biobutanol (up to 50 vol. %): structural-group composition (GC / DHA / PIONA, NMR), thermodynamical miscibility, distillation characteristics, volatility (vapor pressure), viscosity and refractive index. Additionally, with the use of chemical process simulation software - ChemCAD, thermodynamic mathematical models NRTL, UNIFAC and UNIQUAC are tested in order to describe compatibility and phase stability of the prepared blends.

biofuels; status; trends; biobutanol

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