ISSUES

Biofuels

At first sight, biofuels seem to be the answer to our future energy needs. They are said to be "carbon neutral', as they absorb as much carbon dioxide when growing as they emit when being burnt. The idea of using the sun to grow our energy seems to be the best way forward.

But But But.

1 Biofuels take up land. According to Franz Fischler (ex EU Agriculture Commisioner) the land needed to grow the biofuels to meet the EU target of 10% of transport fuels to be biofuels, would require 50% of EU land.. Basically we havent got room. See Biofuels information.

2 Land, previoulsy virgin, in S. America / Asia is being chopped down, reducing the habitats of Orang utangs, among others. Brazil is the world leader in bioethanol from sugar, but where rainforests are being chopped down to provide soya, being displaced by bioethanol crops.

3 Food competition. Biofuels took a third of America's (record) maize harvest in 2007. Fill up an SUV's fuel tank with ethanol and you have used enough maize to feed a person for a year (Economist: End of Cheap Food). Food price rises and shortages are greater than for 3 decades.

4 Energy. The amount of energy (to make the fertiliser, run the tractors etc) going in has to be factored into the equation. Some biosources are better than others - grass and wood and far superior to grain.

5. Global Warming Potential (GWP) Carbon Delft Hydraulics calculate that for every tonne of palm oil 33 tonnes of carbon dioxide are emitted. About a third is lost from the draining peat bogs and the rest come from forests being burnt to make way for plantations - particulalry Oil Palms. That is 10 X more CO2 than petrol produces. There are 2 billion tons of CO₂ lost like this in Indonesia and Malaysia - equivalent to about 8 percent of the globe's fossil fuel emissions. etroleum produces

6. GWP Nitrogen. Dont forget the 'e' in CO₂e calculations! When the extra N₂O emission (due to fertiliser application) from biofuel production is calculated in “CO₂-equivalent” globalwarming terms, and compared with the quasi-cooling effect of “saving” emissions of fossil fuel derived CO₂, the outcome is that the production of commonly used biofuels, such as biodiesel from rapeseed and bioethanol from corn (maize), can contribute as much or more to global warming by N₂O emissions than cooling by fossil fuel savings.

Clearly crops with less N demand, such as grasses and woody coppice species, have more favourable climate impacts. Original paper - leading to discussion, with lead author, Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen.

Biofuels