In today’s world, with global temperature on the rise, humankind is desperately in need of a way to convert a renewable source, such as light, into substances we require that are non-renewable, such as fuel. This situation started out with the industrial revolution, when burning fossil fuels to generate heat and electricity started becoming widespread. When we burn fossil fuels, we release carbon dioxide. This meddled greatly with the carbon cycle which is ”the circulation and transformation of carbon back and forth between living things and the environment. Carbon is an element, something that cannot be broken down into a simpler substance”(indianaffairs). Carbon dioxide has been proven to trap large amounts of heat as it “is nearly transparent to the solar radiation emitted from the sun, but partially opaque to the thermal radiation emitted by the earth. As such, it allows incoming solar radiation from the sun to pass through it and warm the earth’s surface. The earth’s surface, in turn, emits a portion of this energy upwards toward space as longer wavelength or thermal radiation. Some of this thermal radiation is absorbed and re-radiated by the atmosphere’s CO2 molecules back toward earth’s surface, providing an additional source of heat energy”(co2science.org). There is a great concentration of carbon dioxide trapped in our atmosphere, and it is still increasing, so our planet is heating up. We need to discover, or make efficient a way to use a convert light energy to chemical energy and with our modern technology, ways to help our current dire situation have been increasingly multiplying. Though there are no concrete or efficient ways to do so yet, there are a few possibilities that show potential.
The first would be ethanol. Made from sugars found in grains like barley, it is an alcohol fuel used to dilute gasoline. The process of creating ethanol is called ‘dry milling’.”In dry milling, the entire corn kernel or other starchy grain is first ground into flour, which is referred to in the industry as “meal” and processed without separating out the various component parts of the grain. The meal is slurried with water to form a “mash.” Enzymes are added to the mash to convert the starch to dextrose, a simple sugar. Ammonia is added for pH control and as a nutrient to the yeast”(ethanolrfa). Afterwards, this mash is processed and then cooled before it can be transferred to the fermenters where is stays for almost 40 to 50 hours. Later on, this “beer” is distilled so the ethanol and “stillage” can be separated. This ethanol is then mixed with 5% of gasoline so it doesn’t fall under the category for beverage alcohol taxes before it’s ready for commercial shipment. The second possibility would be hydrogen. Hydrogen can be created using artificial photosynthesis, where “solar energy is used to split water and carbon dioxide into hydrogen, oxygen and carbon”(Carlson, theguardian). The most efficient catalyst was considered to be platinum, an expensive and extremely rare element. However, recently, a catalyst has been created out of cheap and earth-abundant elements such as cobalt, oxygen, phosphorous, nickel and zinc. This means that we could potentially use hydrogen to power our homes and cars while being environmentally friendly.
Ethanol does have its advantages, mainly that it is a renewable source of fuel, and that it produces less carbon and carbon monoxide. That being said, it also has its disadvantages. Ethanol is made of grains which are crops that require a large square capacity of land to grow, giving way to problems such as soil erosion. The crops used are potential meals taken away from needy families. Also, to effectively use ethanol as a fuel to power our vehicles, we would have to heavily modify our engines to run on petrol with such a high concentration of ethanol. Similarly, hydrogen has both sides to it as well. Hydrogen leaves almost no harmful emissions. In fact it’s on the contrary, when NASA utilised hydrogen in spaceships, the burned hydrogen gas left behind safe drinking water for the astronauts. Hydrogen is also readily available, and one of the most abundant elements on Earth. Despite this, hydrogen is an expensive element and is also dependent on fossil fuels to separate it from oxygen. Summing it up, ethanol is better than hydrogen as it is much cheaper, but hydrogen is better than ethanol when it comes to availability.
In conclusion, I believe it would be more practical to use ethanol as a renewable source of fuel, as in my opinion, if hydrogen uses fossil fuels to be able to separate itself from oxygen to create a fuel, then we wouldn’t be eradicating fossil fuels. I don’t believe it makes sense to create a renewable source using non-renewable sources. To counter the problems that come with creating ethanol, I think governments should allocate areas specially for producing ethanol, and use a variety of grains, instead of primarily focusing on corn.