The Public-Private Alliance Foundation is currently working with stakeholders including biofuels and bioenergy producers, investors, non-governmental organizations, governments, academia and the UN family. We think it will help to have a shared language among all involved. This glossary is prepared to help people coming from various sectors who are not necessarily familiar with the vocabulary of biofuels and bioenergy.
Today’s strong interest in alternatives to fossil fuels comes from (1) concerns about global warming; (2) interest in sustainable development; and (3) the eventual end of the economic viability of fossils fuels. This article focuses on the third topic – selected alternatives to fossil fuels, namely, bio-fuels and bio-energy.
The geography of the Dominican Republic and Haiti makes them well-suited to the production of sugar cane for ethanol. Other oil-producing plants such as jatropha curcas may also be viable for ethanol production.
The terms and concepts below are in wide usage, except for a few which are specific to the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Wikipedia is an excellent source, and is indicated for some definitions. The following sites have been used for many of the definitions below. We have edited many of the entries. http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/rea_data/gl.html http://www.epa.gov/RDEE/energy-and-you/glossary.html http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/glossary/a.html http://www.epa.gov/captrade/
Alcohol Fuels: Alcohol can be blended with gasoline for use as transportation fuel. It may be produced from a wide variety of organic feedstock. The common alcohol fuels are methanol and ethanol. Methanol may be produced from coal, natural gas, wood and organic waste. Ethanol is commonly made from agricultural plants, primarily corn, containing sugar.
Alternative energy: Alternative energy refers to energy sources that have no or fewer undesired consequences than fossil fuels and nuclear energy. They are renewable have lower carbon emissions, compared with conventional energy sources. Alternative energy includes biomass, wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric energy.
Animal Waste Conversion: Animal waste conversion is the process of obtaining energy from animal wastes. This is a type of biomass energy
B100 - 100% biodiesel
B20, B5, B2 - Petroleum diesel blended with 20%, 5%, and 2% biodiesel, respectively.
Bagasse: Bagasse is the fibrous residue remaining after sugarcane or sorghum stalks are crushed to extract their juice. It can be used as a feedstock for manufacturing cellulosic ethanol.
Batey: In the Dominican Republic, a batey (plural bateyes) is usually a company town on a sugar plantation where sugar workers live. Initially only for sugar cane cutters themselves, mainly Haitian laborers, many bateyes include families of these workers and have grown beyond the original purpose and size. Some have become municipalities. A batey may include only a few workers and / or their families or may have grown to several hundred families or more. (Wikipedia)
Bioconversion: Bioconversion refers to processes that use plants or micro-organisms to change one form of energy into another. For example, an experimental process uses algae to convert solar energy into gas that could be used for fuel.
Biodiesel: Biodiesel is any liquid biofuel suitable as a diesel fuel substitute or diesel fuel additive or extender. Biodiesel fuels are typically made from oils such as soybeans, rapeseed, or sunflowers, or from animal tallow. Biodiesel can also be made from hydrocarbons derived from agricultural products such as rice hulls. Biodiesel is meant to be used in standard diesel engines and is thus distinct from the vegetable and waste oils used to fuel converted diesel engines.
Bioenergy: Bioenergy is useful, renewable energy produced from organic matter. The conversion of the complex carbohydrates in organic matter to energy. Organic matter may either be used directly as a fuel or processed into liquids and gases.
Biofuels: Biofuels are liquid fuels and blending components produced from biomass (plant) feedstocks, used primarily for transportation.
Biogas (Biomass gas): Biomass gas is a medium Btu gas containing methane and carbon dioxide, resulting from the action of microorganisms on organic materials such as a landfill
Biomass: Biomass is organic non-fossil material of biological origin constituting a renewable energy source. Examples are wood, agricultural waste and other living-cell material that can be burned to produce heat energy. They also include algae, sewage and other organic substances that may be used to make energy through chemical processes.
Biomass Converter: A biomass converter is a technical system that converts organic feedstock (biomass) into a technically usable energy carrier:- for example, a steam reformer.
Biomass, Other: This category of biomass energy includes: agricultural byproducts/crops (agricultural byproducts, straw); other biomass gas (digester gas, methane); other biomass liquids (fish oil, liquid acetonitrite, waste, tall oil, waste alcohol); other biomass solids (medical waste, solid byproducts; sludge waste and tires.
Biopower: Short for biomass power.
Cane ethanol: Cane ethanol is generally available as a by-product of sugar mills producing sugar. It can be used as a fuel, mainly as a biofuel alternative to gasoline, and is widely used in cars in Brazil. It is steadily becoming a promising alternative to gasoline throughout much of the world and thus instead of sugar may be produced as a primary product out of sugar canes processing. (Wikipedia) (article on Sugarcane)
Cap and Trade: Cap and trade is a climate change mitigation program. It is intended to deliver results with a mandatory cap on emissions while providing companies with flexibility in how the sources comply. Successful cap and trade programs reward innovation, efficiency, and early action and provide strict environmental accountability without inhibiting economic growth.
Carbon credit: Carbon credits are a key component of national and international attempts to mitigate the growth in concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs). One Carbon Credit is equal to one ton of Carbon. Carbon trading is an application of an emissions trading approach. Greenhouse gas emissions are capped and then markets are used to allocate the emissions among the group of regulated sources. The idea is to allow market mechanisms to drive industrial and commercial processes in the direction of low emissions or less “carbon intensive” approaches than are used when there is no cost to emitting carbon dioxide and other GHGs into the atmosphere. Since GHG mitigation projects generate credits, this approach can be used to finance carbon reduction schemes between trading partners and around the world. (Wikipedia)
Cellulosic ethanol: Cellulosic ethanol is produced from cellulosic materials like grasses and wood chips. At present there are no commercial cellulosic ethanol refiners. A brochure explains the complications and steps involved toward making cellulosic ethanol commercially viable. http://www.nrel.gov/biomass/pdfs/40742.pdf
Charcoal from paper waste: Paper waste can be pounded, mashed, mixed with sawdust, squeezed into cylinders to make a dry briquette – recycled paper charcoal for use in cooking.
Cogeneration: Cogeneration (also combined heat and power, CHP) is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat. (Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogeneration
Cross-border development (Haitian-Dominican Border): Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean, with Haiti on the Western and the Dominican Republic on the Eastern side. Haiti occupies about 1/3 and the Dominican Republic about 2/3 of the island. The land border the countries share is 388 km (241 milea) long. The border area is considered potentially useful for growing jatropha and other plant matter suitable for small bioenergy production.
Diesel: Diesel or diesel fuel in general is any fuel used in diesel engines. The most common is a specific fractional distillate of petroleum fuel oil, but alternatives that are not derived from petroleum, such as biodiesel, biomass to liquid (BTL) or gas to liquid (GTL) diesel, are increasingly being developed and adopted. To distinguish these types, petroleum-derived diesel is increasingly called petrodiesel. Ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) is a standard for defining diesel fuel with substantially lowered sulfur contents. As of 2007, almost every diesel fuel available in America and Europe is the ULSD type. (Wikipedia)
Distribution (of electric power): Electricity distribution is the final stage in the delivery (before retail) of electricity to end users. A distribution system’s network carries electricity from the transmission system and delivers it to consumers. Typically, the network would include medium-voltage (less than 50 kV) power lines, electrical substations and pole-mounted transformers, low-voltage (less than 1000 V) distribution wiring and sometimes electricity meters. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_distribution
Effluent: Effluent is the liquid or gas discharged from a process or chemical reactor, usually containing residues from that process.
Emissions: Emissions are releases of gases to the atmosphere caused by humans. In the context of global climate change, they consist of radiatively important greenhouse gases – gases that absorb incoming solar radiation or outgoing infrared radiation, affecting the vertical temperature profile of the atmosphere
Energy Crops: Energy crops are those grown specifically for their fuel value. These include food crops such as corn and sugarcane, and nonfood crops such as poplar trees and switchgrass. Currently, two energy crops are under development: short – rotation woody crops, which are fast – growing hardwood trees harvested in five to eight years, and herbaceous energy crops, such as perennial grasses, which are harvested annually after taking two to three years to reach full productivity.
Ethanol (also known as Ethyl Alcohol or Grain Alcohol, CH3-CH2OH): Ethanol is a clear, colorless flammable oxygenated hydrocarbon with a boiling point of 173.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the anhydrous state. However, it readily forms a binary azeotrope* with water, with a boiling point of 172.67 degrees Fahrenheit at a composition of 95.57 percent by weight ethanol. It is used in the United States as a gasoline octane enhancer and oxygenate (maximum 10 percent concentration). Ethanol can be used in higher concentrations (E85) in vehicles designed for its use. Ethanol is typically produced chemically from ethylene, or biologically from fermentation of various sugars from carbohydrates found in agricultural crops and cellulosic residues from crops or wood. *An azeotrope is a mixture of two liquids that has a constant boiling point and composition throughout distillation.
Feedstock (plural feedstocks) Feedstock is any bulk raw material constituting the principal input for an industrial process. Bio-materials may be substituted for petrochemical feedstocks as petroleum prices rise. The filtered extract of the mash is the feedstock for the fermenter. (Wiktionary)
Fermentation: Ethanol fermentation is a biological process in which sugars such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose are converted into cellular energy and thereby produce ethanol and carbon dioxide as metabolic waste products. Because yeasts perform this process in the absence of oxygen, ethanol fermentation is classified as anaerobic.(Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fermentation
Fuelwood: Fuelwood includes wood and wood products, possibly including coppices, scrubs, branches, etc., bought or gathered, and used by direct combustion.
