Today, it seems everybody understands the importance of preserving the environment, but at the beginning of the third millennium the relationship between man and nature are partly viewed as a confrontation between two hostile worlds - "the natural world" and "the world of man."
The famous Austrian biologist and Nobel Prize winner Konrad Lorenz, describing the fatal consequences of this destructive "philosophy", wrote: "The daily life of so many people runs among the dead creations of men's hands, they lost the ability to understand the living creatures and communicate with them. This loss explains why humanity as a whole shows a vandalism to the world of nature that surrounds us and supports our lives. Trying to restore a lost connection between people and the rest of the living organisms that live on our planet is a very important and very worthy task. Ultimately the success or failure of the attempts to solve this issue –will the humanity lose itself with all living things on earth or not. Therefore ecobiotechnology strategic objectives and its integral part - bioenergy seen in seeking ways of approaching and mutually beneficial cooperation.
The first fundamental feature of bioenergy is that all living organisms are open thermodynamic systems that operate only in conditions of constant exchange of matter and energy with the environment. Thermodynamics of such systems differs a lot from the classic. The main concepts of classical thermodynamics equilibrium states are replaced the concept of stationary states of dynamic equilibrium. Open systems are capable of self-organization and self-improvement. The second most important feature of bioenergy is connected with the fact that metabolic processes in cells occur in the absence of significant fluctuations in temperature, pressure and volume. Nature, unlike the technology, could not afford high temperature, pressure and other conditions that occur in modern internal combustion engines and other heat engines. The transition of chemical bonds energy in biological useful work in a particular cell or organism generally occurs without converting chemical energy into heat.
It is useful to note that in the process of energy transformation in living organisms play an essential role at the electrochemical stage. The total capacity of the electrochemical processes that occur in the cells of all living organisms biosphere is much higher than world scale technical use of electrochemical energy. In the living cell is mounted something llike hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell (FC). Just as in PE chemical energy of fuel is converted into electrical energy, chemical energy wildlife macroergic compounds also first transforms into electrical form, and then, in the process of oxidative phosphorylation, immediately conserves energy into chemical bonds. Practical application to this is already found PE, which use hydrogen as a fuel and as an oxidising agent - oxygen, electrolyte serves alkali or ion exchange polymer. Nowadays achievements to date in the development of PE successes are mainly related to chemistry, but please note that there are other, in our view, more promising ways to address this problem.
Priority attention in our opinion, should be given to merit systems of power plants that are capable of using microorganisms to convert the energy of chemical bonds into organic molecules electricity. Similar processes allow to avoid thermal stage, transforming the free energy into electrical energy. Thus the energy of organic compounds will be used the most effectively and will not pollute ther envitonment with unnecessary heat. Such technologies will significantly reduce the consumption of fossil fuels also reducing power consumption. In recent years the subject of Bio-PE has got powerful new impetus due to the growing interest to the production of so-called "green" (or ecological) of electricity, as microorganisms (including bacteria, yeast, algae, etc.) can used as fuel virtually the entire range of organic substances, including various wastes. This is an opportunity to simultaneously solve both environmental and energy problems. This primarily refers to wastewater. Thus, the works at the department of bioenergy ecobiotechnology aimed at finding and using microorganisms that are able to both detoxificate and decomposit some of the most problematic environmental pollutants, particularly waste water and to generate electricity. These bacteria are capable of continuous production of electricity in quantities sufficient to power small electronic devices. This is about of the genus Desulfitobacterium and metal reduct bacteria that are able to transmit current conductor without mediators. These bacteria are extremely diverse in terms of their metabolic characteristics; so they can convert many different substrates (corn) into electricity. Another unique feature of these bacteria is that they are an example of forming spores of bacteria that are able to continuously produce electricity. All of this is an ecobiotechnologies foundation that can play a decisive role in the purification of waste water, and thus can receive a certain amount of electricity. For a similar principle solar panels can be built on a new basis. If we can include in these Bio-PE chlorophyll of plants and a number of auxiliary enzymes, then chlorophyll excitation energy photons of light can be taken directly to the conductive substrate.
A further aspect of bioenergy is inextricably linked with the use of renewable energy sources (PDE). All living creatures of biosphere, except men, during their evolutionary development adapted to existence from renewable energy resources. Such strategy in terms of that the energy of the Earth is the only area of sustainable development and sustainable livelihood. That is why the possibility of widespread use of PDE in the economy in recent years is considered very carefully. This approach has advantages in the context of environmental protection. The share of PDE in the energy balance of some countries up to these days is strongly differentiated, and European Union adopted the White Paper "Energy for the future in renewable energy" with the aim to to enlarge it. This publication is currently the key document of strategic character that defines long-term policy direction and puts a quantitative goal - to increase the share of PDE from 6 to 10% for the period 2000-2020 years.
Renewable energy sources in the future should be a significant share in the energy balance of some areas and regions of Ukraine. Every year in Ukraine about 200 million tons of fuel are consumed, and the production of natural sources of the country is only 80 million tons. An important potential resource of such balance of imported energy resources could become biofuel. The form of biomass can be quite diverse. The biomass for energy can be used in the process of direct burning of wood, straw, sapropel (organic sediments) and in processed form as liquid (esters of rapeseed oil, alcohol) or gaseous (biogas - gas mixture, the main component of which is methane) fuel . The conversion of biomass into energy carriers can be acheieved by physical, chemical and biological methods, the latter are the most promising. Depending on the type and scale of production of raw materials costs for the manufacture of liquid biofuels varies in the range of 0.4 USD. / Dm3 ethanol from corn in the US to 0.6 USD. / Dm3 for methyl esters of fatty acids of vegetable oils in Europe. Compared with them the cost of production of liquid fuels from natural resources is about 0.2 USD. / Dm3. Although the production of liquid biofuels is more expensive proccess, experts say that difference between biological and mineral fuel begins to fade in about 2010. On the basis of US studies found that the cost of eliminating negative consequences that occur in the environment caused by the production and use of fuels and minerals, ranges from 0.1 to 0.4 USD. / Dm3. Thus, the total cost balance indicates that fuel derived from renewable biological sources may be cheaper in the gross economic calculation.
Recently there were reports of opportunity and processing of organic compounds of plant origin with hydrogen, which in terms of ecology is an ideal fuel with high calorific value (12.8 kJ / m3) and burns without the formation of harmful impurities. There are phototrophic bacteria that are capable to release hydrogen when exposed to light. Now they "work" quite slowly. But they aregiven by nature such biochemical mechanisms like enzymes that allow to catallyze the formation of hydrogen from water. Some enzymes along with hydrogen and oxygen form, that is photolysis of water. An example can be a system that includes chloroplasts or chlorophyll and enzyme hidrohenaze. Although this trend has not given practical results, it is very promising for the further development of bioenergy.
Summing we will havew to emphasize that the world today continue to evolve phenomena that violate current civilized life - limited to traditional energy sources, increasing the value of their production, heavily polluted environment, the biosphere is destroyed, excessive amounts of organic waste for industrial, agricultural and domestic origin is formed . The elimination of all these problems should be accelerated, and bioenergy is a choice that has a global perspective for the future development of civilization.