Why Is Biochar To Mitigate Global Climate Change

In the current era, fossil fuel is a necessity in our everyday life, for not only it is used as an energy source, but also due to the high rate of dependability on the fuel itself. The recent drop in oil prices caused an enormous impact on the world economy, especially to the countries that are highly dependent on the fuel industry. The United States also are affected by this situation. One suggestion and a major change, in order to reduce the high dependency on the fossil fuel and to overcome the problems related to the usage of fossil fuel, is to start the wide use of biofuel as the fossil fuel replacement. The impact of this change, and also a huge improvement, not only will help to stabilize the economy, but also can help in reducing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

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]

The excess of carbon in the atmosphere is the cause of global climate change. To reverse global warming we must balance the carbon cycle by removing carbon from the atmosphere and returning it to the plants and to the soil (4). Though in the end, carbon exists in everything and the carbon cycle is much more complex because it includes every plant, animal, microbe, fallen tree, body of water, bit of soil, breath of air, plume of smoke, combustion of fossil fuel, decaying particle, and bubble popping to the surface of a swamp (5). Industrial farming has disrupted this cycle. If we completely halted the burning of fossil fuels today, which we can not by any means, climate change would still continue through modern agriculture. The key to reversing global warming is not solely through solar panels and ethanol fuel, but in proper symbiotic farming

However, despite its many advantages biomass still has many disadvantages. Firstly it is not as efficient as fossil fuels, for example the ethanol produced for cars via biomass is not even close to the efficiency of petrol and does damage to engines over time. It also has the potential to harm the environment through increase of methane gases which are produced as a bi-product if animal and human waste is used. Biomass also requires a large distance away from residential areas in order to burn it and a large amount of fuel in comparison to other energy sources which can have dramatic effects if large portions of forests are cut down to provide lumber.1

Schulze, E.D., Körher, C., Law, B.E., Haberl, H., S. (2012). Large-scale bioenergy from additional harvest of forest biomass is neither sustainable nor greenhouse gas neutral. GCB Bioenergy, 4(6), 611-616.

In the article, the Burning Question, the issue of biomass energy via wood pellets was brought to question. This subject has deeply divided scientists, primarily from the chemistry and environmental science disciplines, economists, and politicians. Currently the use of wood pellets for energy, under the European Union, is classified as a carbon-neutral fuel. The argument for this designation lies in the regeneration of trees to take up the carbon released from burning past trees. However, many scientists call foul, basing their argument on the substantial lag period between burning trees and the regeneration of them. This period has led many to worry that such actions will worsen the current global warming crisis. Biomass energy plants produce,

For over forty years now, scientists and researchers have been tirelessly searching for an alternative to fossil fuels. Biofuels have become an interesting contender in the search for the replacement of the non-renewable energy source. Biofuels have been used throughout history for over thousands of years. There is a large debate over biofuels and its true impact on the environment. Those involved in the discussion debating whether biofuels have any real overwhelming benefits compared to fossil fuels could argue for its usage. According to recent research performed by the University of Michigan, biofuels may not be the best alternative for fossil fuels. Regardless of its impact on the environment, biofuels are becoming more popular particularly when the price of oil rises.

Bergman, R., Puettmann, M., Taylor, A., & Skog, K. E. (2014). The carbon impacts of wood products. Forest Products Journal, 64(7), 220-231. Retrieved from http://proxy.library.brocku.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1635231746?accountid=9744

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.

Unfortunately, there are many disadvantages associated with the combustion of coal energy. For example coal releases a tremendous amount of carbon emissions that negatively contribute to climate change and global warming. Coal burning is considered not environmentally friendly due to the large production of harmful by-products such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. This pollution can lead to other major problems for example acidic rain, as well as hazardous health risks to our eco-systems. Globally, scientists agree that the release of greenhouse gases are contributing to the earths rise in temperature, which leads to rising sea levels, disappearing glaciers and change in annual weather patterns. The main problem associated with

CO2 is the most significant greenhouse gas, which mainly comes from the use of fossil fuels. Many people feel that content of CO2 in the atmosphere is the main reason for manmade global warming. The main sources of CO2 emissions involve electricity generation, industrial processes, fumes from transportation and commercial buildings and use. Emissions of greenhouse gases, such as CO2, to the atmosphere are expected to cause even more of a significant change in global climate (Davison, 2007). The main focus to try to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is to reduce the amount that is released from coal-fired power plants. Greenhouse gas emissions that involve the productions of electricity come from natural gas production and coal-fired power plant operations. Natural gas production accounts for twenty-four percent and coal-fired power plant operations accounts for seventy-five percent, while the other one percent is caused by other electricity generation operations. The main reason why coal-fired power plants have a higher percentage of emissions is because the sulfur content of coal is much higher than that of other fossil fuels (Jarmaillo et al., 2007). This proves that there is a great need to find an alternative fossil fuel to use instead of coal. Although coal is easy to mine, transport and process for the electricity generation process, it is also the

When undertaking decisions concerned with environmental impact, both long term and short term effects must be taken into consideration. Excessive farming and processing of fertile land may eventually render the same land infertile. The use of fossil fuels may not have had an immediate effect on the environment but now we understand their impact in the form of greenhouse gasses and their great contribution to global warming. Extensive research must be undertaken in an attempt to

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.

In this essay is analyzed in an overall context the terrestrial carbon cycle and the factors that affect it, the factors include the land and land use change, CO2 and Nitrogen fertilization, climate and climate change and soils, and to highlight the importance of preventing the terrestrial sink to become terrestrial source.

There have been some biofuel developments in the region, specifically in Dubai and Egypt. In both locations the fuel produced is sold at a premium over fossil fuels providing the purchasing companies with enhanced environmental performance. This opportunity will be explored during this study.