Biofuels

Biofuels
Is called the new alchemy because of the process used to obtain the substances. In a visit to a Algenol’s modest testing facility, the author of the article saw a lot of interesting things. First he met Woods, the CEO of the company. First Woods drove the author by a country road in the opposite site of a ranch and stopped in a circle of trailers. There was a place no bigger than thehalf of a basketball court where they hide from the world their actual experiments. There were a several number of rows of tubes acting as containers where let in the sunlight, there were filled with a dark green liquid. The mixture was water and algae which is a microscopic plant that feed off sunlight and carbon dioxide. The algae are ever multiplying in number.
But why Woods and a lot companiesare trying or doing that? That is because they want to produce bio fuel greener and cheaper than oil or ethanol which is a corn based type of fuel. A lot of companies are trying to get the best biofuel or to make a competitive one because traditional biofuels like ethanol or biodiesel are moving us in the wrong direction, this means that the ethanol far from being a green fuel alternative can causea raise in the food price inflation or can cause higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline because the companies clear the forest because of the trees.
This may have changed the opinion about biofuels of some people but is not a good idea to stop using them and continue using the gasoline. Because the cars and airplanes produce 13% of the greenhouse gas emissions (higher percent indeveloped countries). Gasoline hasn’t been substituted by other type of biofuel because of the efficiency and the infrastructure needed to use a new type of fuel. Like the electric vehicles that need the infrastructure to charge cars (stations) and other things.
Fortunately companies are doing research at Europe and America to get a better biofuel. Corn can be converted in biofuel because it’seasy to ferment the sugars in the plant starches into ethanol but in the industry converting sugars into fuel is currently too expensive and the progress in the field is slow.
Companies are trying to convert materials into ethanol by a bioprocess like the action of bacteria that change the chemical structure of it.
There are a few companies that try to use again fuels already used or to clean thewaste water by the action of enzymes.
The experts say that biotech is the solution to produce fuels without the environmental drawbacks modifying by genetic engineering the composition of a plant.
In my opinion I think biofuels are the next generation of energy sources and now is developing a lot that field so is only question of time to use them in our daily activities because of the applicationthat could have in a lot of branches.
7. Then ask yourself these five questions and respond to them:
a. What is the theme or main idea of the article? State it in one topic sentence. 5 pts.
The main idea of the topic is the usage of new energy sources called biofuels and how is investigated and developed the field by companies that want greener and more efficient fuels.
B. What inference does theauthor make? Give this in a complete sentence. According to the article, it can be inferred that the world is changing a lot because of the contamination so companies are trying to help it by the creation of biofuels and researching and developing in the field.
C. According to the article, the phrase “the bottom line is that it is simply premature to rule out any option”; here the author refers tothe new energy sources that don’t have the infrastructure needed in the world to be used.
D.  Find an idiomatic expression: “Traditional biofuels are moving us in the wrong direction” refers to the way are moving us the new fuels and they aren’t exploited like they could be.
E. What five new words did you learn and what do they mean? Give the word and the definition, and use it in a new sentence....