BIOFUELS: The Benefits
Responsible Biofuel Production Can Benefit Everyone
Biofuels are any form of energy derived from a plant source. The most common biofuels are ethanol, an alcohol fuel made from fermenting sugary source material like corn or sugar cane, and biodiesel, a diesel fuel made from vegetable oils and fats rather than crude oil.
When the feedstock for biofuels is grown and harvested in a responsible, sustainable way, the benefits of biofuels impact more than the price at the pump. Biofuels have the potential to reduce pollution, reduce global poverty and convert millions of tons of waste into clean-burning energy. Sounds great, right?
Here are some ingenious ways responsibly produced biofuels can benefit everyone, starting with a switch from corn-based ethanol to “grassoline.”
Gas from Grass?
Ethanol production has sparked ongoing debate among environmental scientists and farmers. On the plus side, it’s true that ethanol burns cleaner than conventional gasoline, emitting less carbon dioxide and benzene into the air; and it’s also true that corn and other plants used as ethanol feedstock absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide in their growth stage, greatly reducing carbon dioxide levels over the entire fuel life cycle [source: US Department of Energy]. But dependence on corn as an ethanol feedstock in the United States has created problems, both with the food supply and fossil fuel consumption.
People directly consume two out of every 10 ears of corn grown in the US, either as fresh corn, corn syrup, corn meal or other corn derivatives. In past years, the remaining eight ears largely kept cows, chickens and other livestock fed — but that was before the ethanol boom. For the first time in American farming history, with the help of government subsidies, more corn was grown for ethanol production from August 2011 to July 2012 than for livestock feed [source: Lott]. In a year when drought conditions compromised total corn yield, critics blamed the ethanol boom for higher food prices [source: McDonald].
It would surprise most people to learn how much fossil fuel energy it takes to grow and harvest corn and soybeans — another popular ethanol feedstock — on a large scale. To be sure, farm tractors burn a lot of fossil fuels, but the biggest fuel hog of all in the ethanol production cycle is synthetic fertilizer. Nitrogen fertilizer, for example, requires 1.5 tons of fossil fuels — mostly coal and natural gas — to produce one ton of nitrogen [source: Oliver].
Recognizing the drawbacks, researchers and farmers have identified a number of non-food sources of ethanol feedstock that are hardy enough to grow in even poor soils with little irrigation and without additional fertilizers. In the US, the best options are tall grasses such as switchgrass and miscanthus. These grasses grow more than 10 feet high in thick strands, and because they’re perennials, they can be harvested in the fall and grow back in the spring; fewer plantings means less fossil fuel running the tractor.
And these tall grasses pack a big bioenergy punch. According to tests by the Argonne National Laboratory, switchgrass has an energy output ratio of 1 to 10, meaning every unit of energy consumed to produce switchgrass ethanol converts to 10 units of available energy. Corn ethanol, on the other hand, produces only 1.36 units of energy output for every unit of energy input [source: Wang].
The switch to “grassoline” is ingenious because it doesn’t compete with existing food crops, can be grown on marginal land, doesn’t rely on synthetic fertilizers and produces a far greater amount of energy per unit of biomass. That helps to keep food prices down, fuel costs down and pollution levels low — a win for everyone!
Pond Scum Beauty: A Biofuel Supermodel
OK. So pond scum looks gross. Looks aren’t everything.
Since the 1950s, alternative energy researchers have had their eyes on algae [source: Keune]. Mature algae — that slimy green goo we recognize as pond scum — are rich with lipids, a type of molecule that includes fats. Those lipids can be extracted and turned into biodiesel, while the remaining dry algal matter can be fermented and processed into ethanol [source: Haag]. Two fuels for the price of one!
Algae need only three things to grow: water, sunlight and carbon dioxide. Not particularly discriminating about habitat, algae can grow in salt or fresh water — even in wastewater from sewage treatment facilities or dairy farms. The key to growing great algae is lots of available carbon dioxide in the water. Naturally occurring ponds don’t usually contain enough carbon dioxide to maintain healthy growth rates, but researchers have found an ingenious solution: redirecting carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants into the algal ponds. Eureka! Algal biodiesel! Not only does algal biodiesel burn cleaner than conventional gas, it gobbles up coal emissions!
Under the right conditions, algal colonies can double in mass overnight and an impressive 50 percent of that mass is oil. In comparison, the second best oil-producing plant is the oil-palm tree, which is only 20 percent oil [source: Haag]. The US government has invested tens of millions of dollars to help bring algal fuels to market, but current production methods can’t deliver the fuel under $8 a gallon at the pump — still out of reach for most. With further investment by the US military and energy giants like Exxon Mobil and Chevron, algae could become both an environmental and economic superfuel.
Into the Wild Blue Yonder
Not surprisingly, the US military is the world’s largest gas guzzler — buying and burning through more than 8 billion gallons of fuel per year [source: National Energy Technology Laboratory]. Jet fuel is a particularly expensive resource and the military is always looking for ways to cut the cost of maintaining its airborne fleet. One exciting possibility is the increased use of biofuels in the jet fuel mix.
During World War II, German scientists developed a process of making liquid fuel from coal. Known as Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) fuels, they can be made from coal, natural gas or biomass [source: Ryan]. The US military is particularly interested in biomass as a fuel source because it decreases reliance on foreign oil, thereby increasing energy security in the event of an international crisis.
But the focus on biofuels is about more than energy security or ‘greening up’ the military. It’s also a smart business decision. At a 2012 press conference, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Terry Yonkers explained that military testing showed that biofuels burn cleaner and cooler in jet engines. That increases overall engine life by a factor of ten — greatly reducing repair and replacement costs [source: Ryan].
Another benefit of biofuels is that they have less mass than fossil fuels, meaning that bio-based jet fuel weighs less than conventional jet fuel. This could have big implications not only for the military but for commercial aircraft, where the weight of the airplane is reflected in ticket prices. A greener, more secure military plus cheaper flights to Cleveland? Sign us up for another biofuel win.
Homegrown Economy
Less than half of the world’s population live in rural areas, but they make up 70 percent of the world’s poor [source: The World Bank]. For decades, the plight of poor rural farmers has been exacerbated by stagnant food prices. The global market for food staples like wheat and corn was dominated by the United States and Europe, where government subsidies kept prices unnaturally low. For example Mexico, which used to feed itself on its own corn, now imports 12 million tons a year from the US, where corn prices are lower [source: Rodriguez].
Oil is the same story. Of the world’s 47 poorest countries, 38 import more oil than they produce domestically and 25 of those 38 countries import every drop of oil they consume [source: Worldwatch Institute].
Dependence on both foreign-grown food and foreign oil leaves the rural poor in developing nations dangerously vulnerable. When food and oil prices spike, as they have dramatically in recent years, they suffer the consequences with none of the benefits.
Homegrown biofuels have the potential to reverse the poverty rate in developing nations. Think of the hundreds of millions of farmers who can barely subsist on the market price of their food crops. By growing ethanol and biodiesel feedstock, they could see a fair price for a hot commodity. At the same time, energy entrepreneurs in those same countries can build the biofuels infrastructure to generate homegrown energy. A 2010 report from the International Food Policy Research Institute concluded that increased biofuel production in countries like Tanzania and Mozambique could decrease the poverty rate in those countries by 5 percent by 2020 [source: Arndt et al]. Lower energy costs, better wages and reduced rural poverty — another potential biofuel win for everyone.
Look for upcoming articles discussing the ethics and policy shaping the growth of biofuel production.
Alkane thanks Dave Roos, writing for http://auto.howstuffworks.com, for the content of this article.
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