Just what's in that biofuel you just put into your tank? A Kettering University researcher is working to standardize the bio-fuel industry, which will help level the playing field in fuel economy for consumers.
Dr. Stacy Seeley, associate professor of chemistry, says more checks and balances are needed for bio-fuels.
"Industry needs to know what is being put in the tank, how it will impact a car and whether or not it will meet EPA standards," Seeley said.
So she and husband Dr. John Seeley, an associate professor of chemistry at Oakland University, have been developing new analytical methods for characterizing the composition of alternative (bio) fuels to facilitate standardization.
Recent high prices for crude oil and natural gas have greatly increased the commercial viability of alternative fuels. Bio-fuels can reduce the U.S. dependence on foreign oil and cut pollution, too. Unlike crude oil-based fuels, however, Seeley said bio-fuels have yet to be standardized in terms of quality -- what the blend consists of -- and efficiency. This standardization is necessary before bio-fuels can begin to replace crude oil in the marketplace.
"Bio-fuels are fuels generated from renewable biological materials and are becoming more attractive as an alternative to petroleum," she said. "Ethanol and bio-diesel are two bio-fuels that are currently available and are likely to be increasingly important in the future."
The Seeleys' research, done in collaboration with Agilent Technologies, is focused on developing new instrumentation that is accurate, efficient and portable for examining conventional petroleum fuels and the new bio-fuels.
"Petroleum fuels, such as gasoline, are comprised of hundreds of different chemical compounds," she said. "This complexity makes it very difficult to accurately verify the amount of bio-fuel compounds added to the fuel. Conventional approaches for characterizing bio-fuel/petroleum blends involve numerous steps. The technology that has been developed, tested, and validated by our research can accurately characterize these blends in one step. This capability is highly useful for manufacturers to monitor the blending process and also for regulatory agencies to verify that a fuel meets the stated specifications.
In short, she said, "The technique works. It is accurate and reproducible for analyzing fuels and bio-fuels, and it will help to develop standards and benchmarks."
The Seeleys' research has already been presented in the United States, Italy and China and has been published in professional journals, like the October 2007 edition of the Journal of Chromatographic Science.
Dr. Seeley's research, seen at left, is just one example of the knowledge and current industry trends that Kettering students get exposed to daily in the classroom. To learn more about Kettering, plan to attend "Discover Kettering," the University's admissions open house on Saturday, Nov. 10, at its campus in Flint.
"Discover Kettering" is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is designed for prospective students and their families to meet current faculty and students, tour campus facilities and find out more about the Kettering advantage of a real-world education coupled with real-world job experience. Additionally, "Discover Kettering" will guide prospective students and their families on how to offset the cost of a college education today through professional co-op jobs.
For more on Kettering's fall open house, "Discover Kettering," call (800) 955-4464, ext. 7865, or visit Kettering's Success Zone at http://admissions.kettering.edu/visit/.
For more on Dr. Seeley's research, see "Benchmarking bio-fuels" at www.kettering.edu.
Today's Blue Box was sponsored by Kettering University. For information on how you can sponsor content in the Blue Box, contact Dan Keelan at (248) 455-7380 or dkeelan@cbs.com.
