Biofuels: Future of Energy

My scientific experiment was to test whether my opinon is true, that biofuels are a good and reliable renewable energy source.  Based on my data collected, the Pongamia oil biodiesel I made has less BTUs (measurement for energy) than the regular fossil fuels, diesel and oil.  The Pongamia oil biodiesel has 3,590,000 BTUs per barrel of biodiesel, while the oil produces 6,322,000 BTUs and the regular diesel produces 5,678,000 BTUs per barrel.  Also, Pacific Biodiesel's biodiesel data shows that it produces 5,629,000 BTUs.  Even though the numbers show that the Pongamia oil isn't as energy-efficient as the other energy sources because it doesn't create a lot of energy per barrel, there are other factors to consider.

The acid and sulfur tests are equally important in checking that the oil is safe to use.  The Pongamia oil has very little of these chemicals which are very good: 0.7 mL of acid and 0.00064 ppm of sulfur.  The regular diesel and oil have higher rates of chemicalas inside them.  Diesel has 5.5 mL of acid and 0.0051 ppm of sulfur; oil has 6.5 mL of acid and 0.4 ppm of sulfur.  These numbers for the energy sources aren't that good and good bring some harm to the environment.  The Pongamia oil wins this round of being a more healthy alternative to energy.  

Overall, I stand with my opinion that Pongamia oil should be used to make biodiesel and, even biodiesel in general, just like the Pacific Biodiesel.  Even though it may not produce a lot of energy compared to fossil fuels, it's a renewable source of energy and the Pongamia crops can keep on growing.  Growing Pongamia and making the oil can take labor but it doesn't produce a lot of emissions compared to the process of fossil fuels getting to Hawaii. Besides the money, the Pongamia crop is more efficient than any other plant-based biofuel because it provides more oil and the whole thing is versatile and be used for multiple of things.  The advantages of Pongamia Oil and biodiesel outweight the disadvantages of it and I think that biofuels should still be and strive to be an important part of Hawaii's renewable energy source goal.

Some of the improvements that could be made to the experiment was that the vials that held the finished biodiesel were not fully air tight.  Ethanol was used in the experiment, and ethanol is easily evaporated.  So, when we didn't seal the bottles quickly enough, the ethanol evaporated and stopped the reaction.  And at the HECO lab, Mr. Zelasko said it was noticeable that ethanol was used because he could tell there's water inside it.