Biofuel Advantages And Disadvantages

According to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, in 2014, we admitted a little over 158 million tons of greenhouse gases, in which a fair amount comes from the carbon dioxide emissions of our cars. As the world continues to grow, biofuels are becoming a more clean and viable option in our gasoline-driven world. Biofuel, which is derived from biomass, makes up such fuels like ethanol and methanol. Biofuel is both non-toxic and biodegradable, not to mention is also made up of renewable resources unlike the fossil fuels which make up a majority of our gas today. Plus, unlike other eco-friendly replacements for gasoline, biofuel is unique in that it can typically function in our current engines.

Through the years, biofuel has become more

For an example, a large component of ethanol is corn and in order to create a significant amount of ethanol it takes away away from the food supply. This ultimately leads to an increase in food prices among other issues. Other disadvantages include the production rate of major components of biofuel such as corn due to their relatively slow growth rate. Corn typically yields 350 gallon per acre to be exact and its energy yield alone is roughly only 20 percent

In order to grow large quantities of algae, a great deal of water, nitrogen, and phosphorus is needed. This would mean the fertilizers used to help grow mass quantities of algae would create more emissions than algae would help take away. Furthermore, with the use of algae it would also ultimately lead to an increase in fuel prices.

Another organism that holds great opportunity to create a more efficient biofuel is fungi. I personally believe this is an option that has not been fully utilized in the biofuel industry, and is often overlooked. Fungi provides many enzymes that could be beneficial to a cheap and more efficient biofuel and may even hold the possibility of being fuel itself. In fact, a tree fungus by the nickname, Gilo, naturally produces a mixture of chemicals that is quite similar to diesel, as it creates range of long-chain hydrocarbon molecules almost identical to the compounds found in fossil fuels.

Fungi is also unique in that it has the ability to transform lignocellulose from plants into sugars. This allows plant waste to be turned into useful fuels through a much easier process and allows us to utilize the non edible parts of plant, meaning if wouldn’t take away from the food