Renewable Fuel Standard Program - Environmental Protection Agency - Research Paper Example

Renewable Fuel Standard Program Automobiles are considered a big threat for environment since they cause a lot of pollution and damage in terms of air and water pollution. No doubt they are a very convenient and rapid source of transportation but the dangerous compounds released from the exhaust of automobiles contribute a lot to the environmental pollution. The automobile derive the power for running by burning the fuels in its engine. The evaporation of fuel itself and the by-products that are released due to burning through the exhaust are major air pollutants. Unfortunately, inside an automobile engine, fuel undergoes incomplete combustion and as a result unburned hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and compounds of sulphur are released, which are extremely dangerous to mankind. Unburned hydrocarbons are highly toxic and they contribute in the formation of ozone at the ground level which causes coughing, choking, irritation in the respiratory system and reduced lung capacity. The nitrogen in the fuel burns at high temperature and pressure in the presence of oxygen from air and turns into various oxides of nitrogen which are very strong irritants for lungs and also weaken the immune system against respiratory infections. Carbon monoxide blocks the transport of oxygen to the brain, heart and other vital organs of the body. It has a strong affinity for hemoglobin found in the blood and readily reacts with it, thus preventing the oxygen to bind with hemoglobin (Rao, 1989). Carbon dioxide which is a natural component of the earth’s ecosystem and although it is an end product of complete combustion, it is being regarded as an air pollutant. Its accumulation causes the green house effect, ultimately causing global warming. Some fuels like diesel contain sulphur compounds which produce sulphur dioxide gas during combustion. It is a strong lung irritant and also is a major contributor to the acid rain formation and falls down on earth in the form of sulphuric acid which greatly damages animals and crops and causes skin diseases (Automobile Emissions: An Overview, 2011) To prevent all such disasters to happen, many organizations are participating in developing awareness and making standards that are environment friendly. Among them is U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who is constantly trying to make such standards and regulations which can lessen the effects of automobiles exhaust on human health and on the environment. It tries to purpose such laws which are applicable in real terms, not causing any problem or applying any severe restriction on the population and at the same time are environment friendly. It has passed many a legislation regarding environment protection and particularly for the hazardous effects by automobiles fuel combustion. All automobile manufacturers are required to provide certain test results which describe the amount of carbon exhaust. Thus automobile manufacturers are designing cars with better emission control systems and which make use of alternative fuels like using blends of biodiesel and ethanol fuel or gasohol, compressed-air, neat ethanol vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, battery electric vehicles, flexible-fuel vehicles, natural gas vehicles, clean diesel vehicles, and some sources also include hydrogen and fuel-cell vehicles (Eco Friendly And Sustainable Transportation, 2011). In the year 2005, the US government passed the Energy Policy Act which is considered to be an attempt in fighting energy problems. It contains a national renewable fuel standard program (RFS), governed by EPA, which was developed to make use of a certain amount of renewable fuel within transportation fuels. It suggested that the amount of biofuel mixed in gasoline must be 4 billion US gallons in the year 2006, 6.1 billion US gallons in 2009 and 7.5 billion US gallons in 2012. Again in 2007, the Energy Independence and Security Act was signed which extend this standard up to 36 billion US gallons by the year 2022. It also said that there will be 9 billion gallons of renewable fuel mixed in gasoline by 2008, 12.95 billion gallons by 2010 and so on till 2022. To take a good start, in first stage advanced biofuel, biomass-based diesel and cellulosic biofuel which is derived from cellulose or hemicelluloses is used which achieves greenhouse gas emissions reduction of about 60%. Also, Biomass-based diesel and advanced biofuel achieve greenhouse gas emissions reduction of about 50% which are renewable transportation fuels. Ethanol is also an environment friendly gas or liquid recommended in Energy Policy Act and RFS program. It is now termed as an oxygenating factor for gasoline and is used purposely for oxygenating fuel in many parts of the country. It is blended as an alternative fuel to the gasoline, mostly in the form of E85 and E100 which contain 85-100% of ethanol alcohol. However, there are separate requirements of volume for each fuel to be mixed and the act superimpose EPA to make threshold standards for each category that it should emit lesser amount of green house gases than the actual fuel which it replaced (Renewable Fuel Standard Program. 2011). To accomplish all these goals, EPA has marked a Renewable Volume Obligation RVO calculated in percentage, for all those who participate in RFS Program. The participants include refiners, importers, renewable fuel producers, blenders and other stakeholders. The RVO will be determined every year and the formula for calculation is the division of amount of renewable fuel to be blended and the actual amount of gasoline expected to be use in that year . The participants have to generate a Renewable Identification Number RIN for all the renewable fuel (in gallons or batches) they produce or import after September 2007. Whenever the ownership of a particular batch changes; the RIN gets transferred to the respective party. To obey RVO requirements, there has been a trading program in which the participating parties register and every year the party has to show that it has an adequate number of Renewable Identifications which would satisfy the RVO limits. Thus the RSF program is intended to achieve considerable green house gas emission reductions by using renewable fuels like ethanol etc, to provide a safe and healthier environment to the nation (Renewable Fuel Standard Program. 2011). On November 30, 2011, EPA has issued a direct final rule of RSF2 program, which identifies other fuel options which fall in the category of biomass-based diesel, advanced biofuel or cellulosic biofuel and are useful in reduction of greenhouse gases. This rule also describes the evaluation of certain renewable fuels like biofuels produced from camelina oil, energy cane, giant reed, and napiergrass, evaluation of renewable gasoline and its blendstocks, as well as biodiesel from esterification. There are also some other changes as well like addition of ID letters to pathways and change of "rapeseed" in existing pathways and both of these should meet the existing thresholds criteria of RFS regulations. More technical information and the tables are described on the website of EPA (Renewable Fuel Standard Program. 2011). Hence due to these measures taken by EPA, most of the automobiles in US are now turned into green house friendly transports. The manufacturers are now making such products which make use of the renewable fuels so as to keep their environment clean and safe. Such automobiles that use a blend of gasoline and ethanol are termed as flexible-fuel vehicles. Because of the expansion and vast need for vehicles, more bio-diesel and ethanol industries are being planted hence providing more jobs to the people of US. The RFS program is certainly a great blessing for people of US, since they are not only provided with clean and healthy environment for themselves and for their generations, but it also played the role of an employer in industrial sector. Bibliography Rao, M N, and H V. N. Rao. Air Pollution. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Pub, 1989. Print. Automobile Emissions: An Overview retrieved on 15/12/2011. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Program retrieved on 15/12/2011 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Program retrieved on 15/12/2011  Read More