The Effects Of Biofuels On The Environment

Nowadays, biofuels have become essential for future economic development and environmental protection. Primarily, their environment-friendliness and low carbon emissions are emphasized as the main advantages. However, in reality, few investigations were made to find out the disadvantages of such renewable alternative, and it may bring much more negative impacts than its advantages.

Carbon dioxide, the chief byproduct of fossil fuel combustion, is a potent greenhouse gas that remains in the atmosphere indefinitely. In the U.S., the burning of coal for electricity pumps more than 2.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, according to the Energy Information Administration. People ask what about the cars? How do they affect the environment? The average American passenger car spits out 11,450 pounds of carbon dioxide every year. There are 246 million cars in the U.S. To cut down on carbon dioxide emissions, governments, car manufacturers and utility companies have been seriously pursuing alternative energy sources. Among the leading contenders are biofuels - renewable, clean-burning fuels made from plant- and animal-based source materials like corn, soybeans, discarded vegetable oil or animal fat. We hear a lot about biofuels and fossil fuels in the news, but sometimes the two terms can get tangled in our minds. Are fossil fuels really made from fossils? Can a regular car fill up on biofuels? Are there any clean-burning fossil fuels, like natural gas?.

To present a counter argument on this issue, there are various advantages of using biofuels as well such as preserving the natural environment and saving the planet from harmful gaseous omissions. Ethanol,

Biofuels are better than traditional fuels because they decrease the national dependency on foreign fuel. The Minnesota biofuel association provides the article “ETHANOL AND REDUCING FOREIGN OIL DEPENDENCY” expressing how the dependency of fuels decrease due to biofuels. “ethanol has helped America lessen its dependency on foreign oil. In fact, increased production of renewable fuels such as ethanol were key components of the Energy”(1). Biofuel contains materials that are found locally. Therefore, there would be no need to find fuels in foreign places. There would be no need to go underground or under the sea to find fuels. It would also decrease the dangers many people put themselves through in order to find the fuel. Also the article “what

Unlike gasoline or diesel, biofuels release little pollution. It can also be used to produce electricity by heating water using biofuels and using the steam produced to rotate a turbine. Another method is to allow the biofuel to decay and produce methane. Methane is commonly used as fuel for car, heating, cooking, and producing electricity.

Another study conducted by journal of Applied Energy shows well-to-wheel analysis of energy produced from different types of biofuel and their impact on greenhouse gases emissions. As shown in figure 2, ethanol has lower carbon emissions compared to gasoline and diesel. Specifically ethanol is made of sugar-beet or wood has significantly lower gCO2-equevlent/km than petrol fuels, while wheat ethanol produces greater emissions since fertilisers are used in its production process. [3]

Our world is finite. That means that there is only a limited amount of air, water, rock, plants and animal material. Earth is like a spaceship with only so many resources. There are no supply ships to drop in and give us a refill of resources. It makes us (as global citizens) the caretakers or stewards aboard the spaceship. So, as global citizens, we have to take care of our planet and make sure that it has enough resources for its own well-being, the other biodiversity living on Earth and even humankind. We must preserve and wisely use what we have. Using renewable resources and energy is one way to do just that. Biofuels are a type of renewable resources. In this report I will be talking about, what are biofuels, what can they do, how biofuels are made, are they available around the world? Should biofuels be used to replace fossil fuels? Why or why not, how do biofuels impact the food supply in 3 rd World Countries, who uses biofuels? Also, the cost, pros and cons and environmental benefits or concerns.

Switching from the expensive oil to alternative fuels has moved from a dream to reality. Today, there are dozens of alternatives to oil that are currently available us to be used. One alternative to oil that is being used more today is ethanol. Derived from plant materials, ethanol can be a cheaper, cleaner alternative to the gasoline that our vehicles run off. When going to gas pumps, one will notice that much of the gasoline is up to 10 percent of ethanol. According to our text, most ethanol in the U.S. is made from corn, yet ethanol can be made from any biomes-- including garbage. (Turk & Bensel, 2011)

The featured film Fuel shows various points on fuel ruining the environment, from American children not being able to play in water to huge industries causing “cancer alley” such as the one on Louisiana. The Environmental Protection Agency has put a few standards into play to regulate health hazarda and complete destruction of the environment. Natural events that have been happening since the birth of Earth have created multiple types of ways humans have taken advantage to create fuel for the world. An interesting point brought up while watching this film was the fact that biofuels caught on as fast as it did to actually start to make a difference for the world. When word started to get out on how ecofriendly and cheap it really is,

It is significant to note that net energy analyses of both types of biofuels will differ based on source matter, differential processing technologies, crop production techniques, and the amount of biofuel being utilized. For example, bioethanol that is produced from wheat has a greater energy renewability efficiency value (ERenEF) (48%) than does ethanol produced from corn. ERenEF “measures the fraction of final fuel energy obtained from renewable resources” (Maca and Freire, 2006). This indicates that a greater percentage of the energy from wheat-based ethanol is renewable, as compared to energy from corn-based ethanol.

However, it requires energy to fertilize, water, spray insecticides, and to harvest. Because of this energy that needs to be invested, biofuels indirectly cause more greenhouse gases than they capture.

Biofuels are biologically derived fuels obtained in a renewable way from organic waste. These organic remains usually come from sugar, wheat, corn or oilseeds. They all reduce the total volume of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere as they absorb it as they grow and emit virtually the same amount as conventional fuels when they burn, resulting in a closed cycle process. Biofuels are often mixed with other fuels in small proportions, 5 or 10%, providing a useful but limited reduction of greenhouse gases. In Europe and the United States, legislation has been in place requiring suppliers to mix biofuels to certain levels. This legislation has been copied by many other countries that believe that these fuels will help to improve the planet through the reduction of gases that produce the so-called 'Greenhouse Effect '.

[Biofuels ‘13] Biofuels For Transport: Global Potential And Implications For Sustainable Energy And Agriculture. n.p.; Earthscan, 2007. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 14 Mar. 2013.

To solve the rigorous threat to earth from global warming, bio-fuels serve as the most feasible source of energy all over the world. The environmental and economical performance of bio-fuel as compared to fossil fuel was analyzed by full Life Cycle Analyses (LCA) in Spain. The Spanish government CIEMAT, carried out two LCA’s so as to compare ethanol-ethanol mixtures with gasoline, and biodiesel-biodiesel mixtures with fuel oil according to ISO 14040-43 standards, these standards evaluate energy and mass balance for two or more objects. It was concluded that carbon dioxide emission during utilization of bio-fuel are lower than fossil fuel and bio-fuel requires less primary energy to be processed than fossil fuels. Bob Dinneen, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association submitted the letter to the editor of The Gazette in which he marked that “On an environmental level, conventional ethanol is reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 34% compared to petroleum, including hypothetical land use change emissions” (qtd. in renewable fuel association). As the raw material for

In the world of global warming, all kinds of pollution and fuel shortages going on, renewable and clean/ green energy is increasingly the ideal solution of energy related problems we have to solve one way or another. Biofuel is one of the mainstream and highly supported solutions nowadays, an idea to make renewable fuel by living organisms such as fiber, corn, vegetable oil or sugar cane. Unlike nonrenewable fossil fuels over extracted by people causing various environmental problems like generating a considerable amount greenhouse gas, current technology already lets renewable fuel like biofuels to shrink a certain amount of greenhouse gas production, making it a more ‘clean’ source of energy.