ChemIONS

Few days back, Biofuels was in top headlines of British newspapers as a team of scientific experts suggested the government to review their Biofuel Policy.  This invites some thoughts on Biofuels- are they a real promise or a disappointing alternative?

The increasing oil prices and their less availability together with the alerts on global warming triggered the recent increased interest in Biofuels.  Different countries, depending on their flora and fauna, explore the possibilities for Biofuel production, like corn and soybeans in US, cane sugar in Brazil, palm oil in Indonesia etc.  The sugar crops are fermented with microbes and enzymes on industrial scale to produce Bioethanol, while oils from crops are heated and changed their characteristics to produce Biodiesel. 

To count of the me

Being a synthetic chemist, one always go through a variety of experiences, sometimes thrilling, some other times exciting, but highly disappointing most of the times! To be an enthusiastic chemist, it demands a high content of positive energy from inside and a bright ray of hope or inspiration.  Often those reactions which are feasible by all means turns up to be futile, wasting a lot of money and a lot more precious time. 

Why does it happen? Some people say it depends on the physical conditions, some others say it depends on the chemists' skill. But is it true? Even if a skilled person could make it happen, will he able to repeat it consistently? Giving attention to details and a very keen observation of condiions, like the amount of solvent, whether solid phase or solution phase reaction is more favoured etc. may help a sharp minded chemist to excel in his/her synthetic persuites. 

The thing is that there are a lot of synthetic reactions which are very much feasible and there are a variety of chemical products availabel on the market (with some of them with killing p