Plants and the person. Plants as not food renewed energy sources

you are: Plants and the person

With strengthening of an energy crisis the role of plants as solar energy converters becomes more and more important. Plants cover extensive spaces of globe and continuously translate a solar energy in organic substance which can be used as an energy source, liberated at its oxidation. big advantage of plants as an energy source consists that they renew, i.e. Or continue to grow after partial harvesting, or can be vysejany again. Interest to a tree as to fuel, especially in a woody northeast part of the USA where it is a lot of a tree Lately has suddenly raised. Fire wood can be used not only for heating of apartment houses, burning them in modern economic wood furnaces; some household appliances translate from an electricity on wood chips. thus, in the future wood can provide a part of our requirements for thermal energy. Addressing to this kind of the fuel which stocks seem infinite, it is necessary to take care of to destroying its source as a result of an overexploitation. It is necessary to remind that all European continent has once been covered by woods from which today there were only small groves. All have cut down the rest on fire wood in the Middle Ages, without caring of wood restoration. If not to accept the corresponding carefully thought over measures all it can repeat somewhere in other place. Such tendency is already observed in some poorly developed countries where destruction of trees advances their growth. If there will be no increase in wood landings, improvements of methods of conducting a forestry and some stabilisation of a population in the countries ' the third world ' there will be a lack of the fire wood which consequences will overcome much more difficultly, than consequences of a lack of oil in the Western world.

Other way of use of plants as an energy source is a transformation of vegetative products into spirit. Almost any vegetative material fermentativnym or a chemical way can be spread out to simple sugars, and sbrazhivaja these of sugar by means of yeast, it is possible to receive ethyl spirit. In such a way it is possible to transform surpluses of grain, a sugar cane, corn stalks, a wood waste, seaweed and even the garbage containing considerable quantities of a vegetative material into spirit. Thus it is frequent as a by-product the barmy weight rich with fiber which together with not rewandering vegetative, a material it is possible to use on a forage to cattle turns out. the received spirit can be mixed with gasoline in the ratio 1: 9 or even 1: 4; (' gazohol ' or benzospirt) it is possible to fill with this mix usual internal combustion engines, having made in them little changes. Using thus a vegetative material which otherwise would go on emission, it is possible to compensate observed shortage of oil essentially. Hardly, however, it will be possible to achieve the big benefits, growing up vegetative cultures specially for spirit manufacture, as it is frequent to grow up culture, it is necessary to spend for cars and on fertilizers as much energy, how many it will be possible to receive from it.