Biofuels. Salvation of the world?

evawhite on April 28th, 2008

Biofuels, biofuels, biofuels it’s everywhere these days. You find politicians making headlines on it, environmental groups protesting against it, scientists publishing various reports on the helpful/harmful nature of the fuels, car companies advertising their ‘biofuel compliance’. Phew! That’s a lot of them! So, I decided to see for myself what these biofuels are about. You’ll be surprised.

So what is the ‘bio’ in biofuels? Biofuels don’t really pollute any lesser, it is a convoluted concept. What is also a convoluted concept the carbon credits/carbon emission system which I’ll talk about in another post? The biofuel concept goes like this; Biofuel is plant derived fuel. Where ethanol is derived from various crops and mixed with regular fuel in different percentages. Like bio-30 or bio-60 means that much percentage of plant-derived ethanol is present in the regular gasoline/diesel.

The biofuel consumers don’t pollute any lesser. The theory is the carbon consumed by the plants is offset by the carbon emitted by the vehicles. A theory. Tailor made to appeal to some politician to sell to the masses. There is pressure already to drop this biofuel business (click on link for more)

Here’s how it really works.

The problem is in production of biofuels. The problems are the crops used for Biofuel processing; deforestation to gain land for plantation and the one which really pinches is regular farmers quitting farming vital crops to grow ‘biofuel friendly’ crops. The last point is understandable only, only from an economic point of view. The farmers pick what pays them best, but what of the masses? They stop producing vital crops which result in a shortfall of food!

The other hugely debated aspect is choosing the correct crop to be harvested for biofuel processing. Many of the methods currently used for biofuel production are more environmentally adverse than producing conventional forms of energy, only a select few are not. Ethanol for fuel is made through fermentation, the same process which produces it in wine and beer. So there can be several methods, but which has the least environmental impact should be picked.

The UN Report (click link to see) on biofuels says quote:
“Environmentalists have warned that the biofuel craze can do as much or more damage to the environment as dirty fossil fuels”
“Changes in the carbon content of soils and carbon stocks in forests and peat lands might offset some or all of the benefits of the greenhouse gas reductions”
“Liquid biofuel production could threaten the availability of adequate food supplies by diverting land and other productive resources away from food crops”

What/Who is causing these concerns? The politicians are of course. The biggest problem with politicians is that they are never in office long enough for the boomerang to come hit them back in the face. They see public concerned about the environment, so they come up with a convoluted theory, encourage the private sector to put their money in it by offering them governmental sops, so what happens? Rise in commodity prices, strain on water supplies, large deforestation and farmers moving away from harvesting vital crops.

The developing countries are the ones most heavily hit by this phenomenon, while some countries divert food (click for more info) to produce bio fuels like in the US 20% of the corn produced is diverted for biofuel production.

Last word from a political leader “It is a sign of the lopsided priorities of certain countries that they will resort to measures that will produce fuel at a cheaper cost in order to meet the transport requirements of a section of their population,”
“The pursuit of such policies at a time when many in the world could barely afford to eat was “outrageous and… must be condemned”.

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Tags: bio, biofuels, conservaion, crops, divert food, enviroment, farming, fuel, Health, nature, UN report
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