The BioFuel Dream is Dead
Posted January 16th, 2008 by aptana
Debate rages over what will happen to greenhouse gas emissions as more biofuels are grown. Approximately 1% of the world’s fields are currently devoted to growing biofuels and that figure is set to grow. But is there enough land to grow crops or water to irrigate them given the demands on global agriculture? And how many forests will be destroyed to grow biofuels?
The future
The debate is raging on and what a vicious debate it is.
Even if biofuels are as damaging to the environment as we are told, an alternative to oil needs to be found soon. We are all relying so heavily on oil at the moment and because of this, we will have a problem when it runs out. That part is obvious.
The less obvious part of finding an alternative is in everyone's minds at the moment.
Although, it may only be an irrelevant thought in some people's minds, it is there all the same.
Personally, I agree with bio-fuels. Well, what other option is available? If something else is found, we'll consider it, but until then, sugar cane (as stated by other members above) seems a very viable alternative to oil and diesel.
(People have also looked at the possibility of using fats from fast-food restaurants as a fuel)
Biofuels from Lignocellulosic Materials
Biofuels from Lignocellulosic Materials - this should be everyones new dream. It involves extracting fuel from lignocellulosic materials, e.g. wood, or waste paper etc.
"Cellulose is one of three major structural components of plant cell walls. It has been called the most abundant biological material on Earth. The other two structural components are hemi-cellulose and lignin. All three have their own characteristic properties influencing how we might use them for energy. Food farming and processing already produce excess cellulosic biomass that could become biofuels. Jenkins said we could one day be driving on fuels made from leftover rice straw, wheat straw, orchard tree prunings, nutshells, fruit pits, and wine-grape skins and seeds ... Other biomass could be diverted from municipal waste -- materials such as paper and cardboard that are unsuitable for recycling ... tree trimmings; and restaurant and residential garbage. Shoemaker said, “Once we can cost-effectively break down plant cell walls to give sugars, then we open up a whole new manufacturing base for production of new fuels, chemicals and materials." "
Taken from - http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=7873
There is an incredible amount of information on the internet about this. However, at the moment, the technology is not available to take this method of biofuel production to the commercial stage:
"The conversion of lignocellulosic material into biofuels is complicated and not yet a commercial business, but the trends towards commercialisation are evident."
Taken from: http://www.zero.no/transport/bio/vessia_version3-20-12-05.pdf
When the technology does become available though, this means that we will not have to remove forests to plant crops such as sugar cane etc, but we can use sustainably managed forests to produce biofuels, and also, the extraction of biofuels from waste materials would be amazing for the reduction of the amount of waste sent to landfills or incinerated, etc.
In my opinion, the biofuel dream is far from dead, it is just beginning.
Biofuels
Not much time to give an expansive response , but biofuels has a part to play, however it depends on what the crop is. Sugarcane is by far the most productive. Maize which is the most common, is not so good. And is used in US because it suits the farming lobby, and the gov' can show that it is doing something positive. Brazil gets a lot of its fuel from sugarcane with little problems I believe. I'll be back at a later date...
A bit of an indtroduction like - to biofuel isage
Hi. Gee if only we in Ireland had had crops of sugarbeet which we could use as a source.......No but seriously folks, using arable land is one way to get biofuels and there is an outcry of how this will make foodprices rise and how all the land will be used for biofuelcrops. As a vegetarian I have seen the effects of using vast swaths of land for grazing beef and how much better it could be used for foodstuffs - so the big picture has to be looked at. and don't forget that farmers are no longer performing 'land husbandry' they are out to make as much money as they can as easy as they can.
I drive a 'flexifuel' Ford Focus. I make sure to always fill it with bioethanol. The bioethanol is produces from waste products from Cheese manufacturing in Cork. So I guess the dairy industry rather than the sugar, Rapeseed option.
But again the big picture must be looked at and the pressure from big oil, crop, car producers taken into account.