In the saying “Necessity is the mother of invention”, depletion of the petroleum resources and rise in international prices of crude oil is forcing to research for alternative fuels. Raise in air pollution is another strong reason that is encouraging the search for environment friendly fuels.

Bio-gas produced from cow dung slurry can be used as an alternative to cooking fuels like LPG, Kerosene, firewood and even electric stove. In addition to cow dung slurry, Bio-gas which is methane can be produced by fermenting any organic material at low levels of oxygen. Methane or Bio-gas is produced by the fermenting microorganisms. Bio-gas not only serves as an alternative fuel but also replaces the use of pesticides and fertilizers, as the treatment remains from the bio-gas plant, it can be used as manure. The manure produced from bio-gas plants is having the capacity to fight against the diseases that affect the paddy crop and also raises the soil fertility. Another advantage is that it keeps the environment free of cow dung. In countries like India where paddy is grown to a great extent, these bio-gas plants can serve dual purpose of providing alternative fuel and manure for the crops. These plants are very easy and cheap to install.

Bio-gas is also being used to power the automobiles. Efforts are being made to design cars that utilize bio-gas instead of gasoline as fuel. To accommodate, large amounts of fuel in the small fuel tanks the gas is compressed. The gas is generally filled in cylinders that are lined with fiber glass shell and impact absorbing foam to avoid any risk at the time of crash. These cylinders have very less diameter, and three cylinders are packed together making them akin to gasoline tanks in size and shape.

In the drive to protect the environment from the impact of global warming, the use of bio-gas is being considered important. Its major advantage is that it reduces the emission of co2, oxides of nitrogen and reactive hydrocarbons to a great extent compared to the gasoline powered vehicles. Even the emission of particulate material, the transport and deposit toxic material through the air is less. In addition to the environmental benefits, other benefits include ease of maintenance, abundance in availability, and lower costs compared to gasoline.

Even with the above benefits, the use of bio-gas has not become popular due to some disadvantages. The use of bio-gas to power cars costs the trunk space to accommodate the cylinders, initial investments are high due to high cost of manufacturing the cylinders, reduces the extent of drive compared to gasoline vehicles.

In addition to bio-gas, biodiesel obtained from soybeans is being considered as an alternative bio fuel to power the diesel based vehicles. Its usage is being considered due to its ease in production from naturally occurring plant products like soybeans, canola, palm, sunflower and peanut. However, due to certain hazardous emissions like sulfur, its usage is still under investigation.

Government bodies should strive to increase awareness among the public and encourage them to use bio-gas to save the environment.

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