Alberta
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The Offical Wiki of the 2007 University of Alberta iGEM Team
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Background: Biofuels
With growing concerns in the global energy market there has been a continual push for the development of renewable energy sources. Specifically, two fuels have dominated the media: biodiesel and ethanol. However, both of these fuels have short comings in terms of being a viable fuel source.
Biodiesel is a fuel produced from the vegetable oils of crops that can be used in an engine system very similar to a traditional diesel engine. However, vegetable oils in crops only make a small portion of the biomass of with ultimately low yields of fuel per acre of crops. As such it is more economically advantageous to use these resources for crops.
Ethanol has already seen huge attention to be used in the typical otto cycle engine and in many places is already being blended with gasoline to create a hybrid fuel source. However an engine to run on pure ethanol is beset by several major obstacles. Firstly ethanol is miscible with water at any concentration giving which creates long term storage corrosion issues. In addition ethanol engines must be design to expect water vapor unlike their gasoline counterparts. Ethanol also has significantly different thermodynamic properties than gasoline such as a lower energy density and different vapor properties which would reduce the economical advantage of using ethanol as a primary fuels source.
We propose using a different fuels source to eventually replace gasoline, Butanol. Butanol is a superior to ethanol as a replacement for petroleum gasoline. With a low vapor pressure, high energy density, and a gasoline-like octane rating, it can be blended into existing gasoline at much higher proportions than ethanol without compromising performance, mileage, cold starting, or volatile organic pollution standards, without modifying the fuel-air ratio, and without changing the fuel system. It also is immiscible with water at concentrations higher than 7% alleviating storage concerns.
More information on the summary of biofuels viability: the inspiration to our project can be found here.
Our Approach
Calender
Discussion Board
Protocols
Files
The Team
Our team has a rich background in biology, biochemistry and engineering. To compliment our diversity we also have advisors who have a wealth of knowledge in research and applications of genetic engineering. The University of Alberta's iGEM Team Members can be found here.
Edmonton
For more on the city of Edmonton Click here.
External Links
[http://www.ualberta.ca University of Alberta Homepage]
