Fuel from rubbish (sample poster)

1. Fuel from rubbish (sample poster) Cars run on fuel made from household waste could be on the streets in just two years, according to INEOUS, a world-leading chemical company. The technology could make a major contribution to reducing greenhouse gases and the world's need for fossil fuels. The process produces ethanol, C2H5OH by mixing a biological catalyst with carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which are produced by burning the biodegradable waste. Ineos, the chemicals company, said that it had patented a method of producing fuel from municipal solid waste, agricultural waste and organic commercial waste. The company claims that it can produce about 400 litres of ethanol from one tonne of dry waste. The new process works by heating the waste to produce gases, then feeding the gases to bacteria, which produce ethanol that can be purified into a fuel. Cars that run on bioethanol have been made in Brazil, where a comprehensive biofuels industry is based on sugar cane. Ethanol burns to produce carbon dioxide and water and very little pollution C2H5OH + 3O2 2CO2 + 3H2O Biofuels have been backed by governments as one of the key ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Much of the waste burned contains valuable carbon atoms. If cellulosic material is simply burned to generate electricity 30 per cent of carbon atoms goes up the chimney. There is an alternative to suit town councillors and environmentalists alike - using waste to create biofuels (and other chemicals) and energy Bio-fermentation Key to the technology is the waste-to-ethanol process that was developed by chemical engineer James Gaddy of Bioengineering Resources Inc (BRI), and which combines thermochemical and biochemical technology. First, organic matter is gasified using oxygen to produce syngas, a mixture of CO (carbon monoxide) and H2 (hydrogen). This is quenched and cleaned and heat is recovered to generate renewable power. Clostridium ljungdahlii bacteria ferment the gas at room temperature to create ethanol which is purified to give anhydrous (pure) ethanol. Ethanol fuels – our saviour? Kenneth Richter, biofuels campaigner at Friends of the Earth said: 'While efforts must be made to develop more sustainable alternative fuel sources, they are years away from being commercially available and are not a sure-fire fix for future petrol demand”. In addition, present methods of producing biofuels from crops have been criticised for causing high food prices by taking up land that would have been used to grow food. Although bioethanol production releases a lower volume of greenhouse gases than petrol, critics say that it has encouraged deforestation. NB. This example gives you an idea of what a poster might look like; it does not reflect the standard expected, or the style/format that you must adopt.