Before talking about biofuels, you need to know the basics from where it is created from. Biofuels are produced from biomass, which is derived from living or recently living plant matter such as trees, grasses, agricultural residue, algae, and other biological material. “Biofuel is considered carbon neutral”, which absorbs roughly the same amount of carbon dioxide during growth as when it is burnt (Rutherford, 2009). Biofuels is much cleaner than petrol/diesel because of the considerable impact petrol/diesel has on the environment from the high fuel emissions. Biofuels will help decrease dependence on fossil fuels such as oil, gas, petrol, and coal. This paper will discuss the many crops that biofuels derive from, the various types of biofuels, and the advantages (Pros) and disadvantages (Cons) of biofuels. These biofuels will reduce our nation's dependence on foreign oil, improve our air quality, and support rural economies.
Pros and Cons of Biofuels
The primary principle of how biofuels work is through the process of photosynthesis, which is how plants capture and store the sun’s energy. The energy stored in the plants is converted to many types of biofuels through a process called biocatalysis. Biofuels are developed through agricultural crops. There are two factors why agricultural crops are the main reason biofuels are developing: plants are easy to grow and are a key form of a renewable resource. There are many crops that biofuels are specifically grown and produced from. Here is a list of the top ten agricultural crops and a description of each.
10) Corn
Turning sugar-rich corn into ethanol is like a brewery. They first grind the kernels and mix them with warm water. Then they add yea...
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...ps engines last longer by eliminating the wear and tear (Perritano, 2011).
4) Health Benefits
According to Reilly, 10,000 people die each year in the United States from pollution created by gasoline engines (Perritano, 2011). Reilly also stated that gasoline emissions release nitrogen oxide, acetaldehyde, and other pollutants in air that produce smog which causes asthma and respiratory ailments. As stated before biofuels reduces emissions and pollution. Biofuels only release the carbon dioxide which their plant source absorbs out of the atmosphere.
In conclusion, biofuels are quickly becoming the future source of fuel to run vehicles and equipment. Biofuels has many disadvantages, but the advantages significantly outweigh them. Nobody has a definite answer on how to fix the growing fuel and oil crisis of today, but biofuels absolutely has promise.
Pimental D and Patzek (2005). Ethanol Production using Corn, Switchgrass and Wood; Biodiesel Production using soybean and Sunflower. Earth and Environmental Sciences, 14 (1).
“All Biofuels Are Not Created Equal” is a very informative article that everyone should be aware of. The authors of this article show how biofuels can be made to benefit Earth. Our ecological footprint is so big that everyone requires 2.5 Earths to maintain the same lifestyle. What does this reveal? It reveals that Earth’s resources are being diminished. This means that the world needs to do something to prevent this so Earth can last for future generations. The way that biofuels are being made is not very effective in helping this problem. This is because it either requires deforestation or the burning of fossil fuels, which the world is trying to stop. Instead of using corn or sugar cane as ethanol, alternative crops should be used because it will benefit our environment the most.
Biofuels, fuels that provide energy using relatively recent organic sources, have been around just as long as cars have. In fact, the first cars ran on peanut oil. Henry Ford, founder of a multimillion dollar American car company, planned to fuel his massively successful Model T’s with ethanol (National Geographic 2013.) However, this revolutionary idea was swept under the rug when the discovery of massive petroleum deposits kept gasoline and diesel cheap and affordable. As 2014 rolls around, consumers are starting see that the amount of petroleum in the Earth is shrinking and the same story goes for their wallets (Avro 2012.) Not only does burning gas and diesel empty out the wallet, it is also slowly covering the Earth with a warm carbon dioxide blanket that causes global warming. Transportation, which is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gasses (Biofuel Association of Australia 2013), is dependent on finite amounts of gas and diesel for its energy needs so it is very important we move towards a more renewable and sustainable fuel source. Biofuels, both ethanol and biodiesel, have the potential to fuel transportation efficiently and drastically reduce the carbon footprint, thus reducing the warm blanket of carbon dioxide on the Earth.
Fossil fuel plays leading role in upsetting environmental and climatic protection. Our earth is at catastrophic risk by the exploitation of fossil fuels. Therefore, Pressure is on to find viable alternatives for energy to save bring a clean revolution. In that case, Bio-fuels make an attractive alternative for energy than fossil fuels. Various provocative questions need discussion that what are the attractive differences between both the fuels, why fossil fuel dependence are to be actually minimized? Why Biofuel magnetizes the environmentalists and people as viable substitute to fossil fuels? What is the scope of Bio-fuel for safer world in upcoming years? Above all, It will be conferred that why Biofuel is better than fossil fuels.
Biodiesel is considered an environmentally friendly alternative because it reduces the amount many toxic substances. Plants such as soybeans require carbon dioxide from the air to produce their stems, roots and leaves. During biodiesel production from soybean oil, carbon dioxide is produced and released in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is considered a green house gas (GHG). However, this cycle of GHG emission does not neccersarily contribute to the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. This is because the next soybean crop will reuse the carbon dioxide emitted for its growth. Another important environmental benefit is that biodiesel reduces particulate matter (PM), hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions. These benefits occur because biodiesel contains 11% oxygen by weight. Oxygen allows the fuel to burn better, resulting in fewer emissions from unburned fuel. And lastly, biodiesel fuels do not contain any sulfur and does not have an unpleasant smell when it is emitted from vehicles.
“According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations’ global hunger data, more than 10% – about 800 million people – are undernourished and do not have enough food to lead healthy, active lives (Farmers Weekly). Global food shortages are a day to day issue that all organisms on Earth suffers. Biofuels are a huge part of global food shortages because it is made from the oils of plants which could be converted into food. Biofuels are produced from plants that are burned in furnaces or diesel engines. The the oil from those burned plants is mixed with petroleum, furthermore this process creates biofuels. Biofuels mainly consist of corn which could be used as food instead. Farming techniques are very important to the food shortages too. Without proper farming techniques crops wouldn’t be growing as well as the plants are today. Hydroponics can help this
Introduction:The idea of biofuels is a old concept, reaching as far as the ending of the 19th century. Solid in its idea but flawed in its presentation. Biofuels are a alternative energy to fossil fuels that are made from natural methods such as plants and crops and are key in solving the apparent flaws of fossil fuels. While fossil fuels have been in use for over a century, Biofuels have now risen to the popularity and been exposed to the press. At one point of time biofuel were being considered by some of the most brilliant minds ever in human history such as Henry Ford and Rudolph Diesel who believed that biofuels had the potential to be the new evolution s on only to reappear a century later. Now the world faces the struggles of global warming and the depletion of fossil fuels slowly dimming by day. Throughout the last century biofuels have proven to have a place in our society as a new alternative fuel source. Specializing in Being Natural and healthier than fossil fuels, biofuels have had a rough beginning against its competitor due to key situations such as pricing, Side effects, to fuel power. However the idea was passed on a to the later generations, and continued to pasand prolong usage. However through the last decade they have been highly advertised by politicians and Government officials claiming it to be the future of a powerful working society, and to help in making a new energy free world. Through belief Some even claiming that “By 2050, a new generation of sustainable biofuels could provide over a quarter of the world’s total transport fuel, according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency” (last name). With such improvement biofuels should be the obvious answer to providing a better future to th...
In the world of global warming, all kinds of pollution and fuel shortages going on, renewable and clean/ green energy is increasingly the ideal solution of energy related problems we have to solve one way or another. Biofuel is one of the mainstream and highly supported solutions nowadays, an idea to make renewable fuel by living organisms such as fiber, corn, vegetable oil or sugar cane. Unlike nonrenewable fossil fuels over extracted by people causing various environmental problems like generating a considerable amount greenhouse gas, current technology already lets renewable fuel like biofuels to shrink a certain amount of greenhouse gas production, making it a more ‘clean’ source of energy.
...l production from food crops is not economically viable, thus the biofuel production from lignocellulosic plants is less likely to be. There are uncertainties regarding if the lignocellulosic crops are really going to decrease the water consumption of ethanol production. And finally, biofuel production can cause food insecurity within the producer countries and sometimes it can be expanded to the rest of the world due to the increase of prices.
The continuous depletion of fossil fuel resources and their increased demand has changed the outlook from ancient resources of fuel to new resources especially biomasses of plant origin. Plant biomass is a promising raw material for fuel generation to sustain fuel requirements in the modern age. Basically biofuel these days can be divided into first generation and second generation depending upon the type of biomass used. Biofuel derived from sugars, oils, cereals, sugarcane and starch are categorised in first generation fuel while use of lignocellulosic biomass like soft and hardwood, agricultural wastes, straw and corn stover provides second generation fuels [1].
... other solution to eliminate vehicles' emissions such as use bioethanol and biodiesel. Because this fuel has neutral Carbon atoms in its chemical form, the scientists named it biofuel (1). The researchers support using biofuel due to low Carbon emission that produce from burning this fuel. According to State of Connecticut's strategy, using biofuel will decrease dependence on fossil fuel by reducing its consumption by (20%) (7). Though many advantages of using biofuel in vehicles and industries, some researchers think that this strategy is very dangerous because it will utilize large agricultural area to make fuel instate of make food (1). They believe that this strategy will increase the price of vegetable oil in local markets (1). Moreover, burning biofuel produces solid Carbon (soot) to atmosphere and add another problem to earth's environment.
Biofuels can be produced either by First Generation of Biofuel (FGB), Second Generation of Biofuel (SGB), Third Generation of Biofuel (TGB) or Fourth Generation of Biofuel. FGB is mainly derived from food crops where it had created an issue regarding on competition of food for...
In comparing diesel and biodiesel, it is obvious to assume that diesel is evil and biodiesel a safe-for-the-environment product. Biodiesel has many superiorities in terms of reducing pollution. In over 15 million miles of in-field testing, biodiesel showed comparable fuel consumption, horsepower, torque, and haulage rates as conventional diesel fuel.
Coal and crude oil are non-renewable resources. They take an extreme amount of time to form and due to that, they cannot be replaced once they have all been used up. However, when it comes to the biofuels, they are produced from plant material and are renewable. There are two types of biofuels: Biodiesel, which is made from rapeseed oil and other plant oils and is used in diesel-powered vehicles without needing any modifications to the engine, and Bioethanol, which is a liquid fuel that burns quite well and is made by fermenting sugars from sugar cane, wheat and other plants. In this essay, whether or not biofuels are becoming an increasingly important alternative to traditional forms of energy under environmental and economic benefits and
More farmers are now planting crops for biofuel, resulting to an intense drop in food production. According to experts this promising alternative energy source is seemingly causing a global decrease of food supply. As the demand for biofuels increases, more industrialized countries are offering encouragements and subsidizing farmers to grow crops for fuel rather than for food. The biofuel production method was also anticipated to be carbon neutral, as the crops would absorb the carbon dioxide released when the biofuel was burned. However crops for fuel are now grown at such a rate that they need more energy to cultivate, grow and harvest. By the time it reaches households, it would have consumed more energy and released more greenhouse causing substances than the feared fossil fuels would have. The fact that emissions are released during production, processing, fertilizer application and as a result of land use change is highly ignored. Somehow biofuels can sidetrack less harmful and clean resources like renewable energies such as solar and wind energy. Large scale cultivation of biofuel crops, unlike small scale, locally produced and biofuel owned farms are commonly challenged by problems such as severe use of water, chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides. These also often lead to pollution, depleting and degrading available water resources which can cause famines. According to contrary believe of analysts, it has also shown that there is not enough farming land on earth to produce biofuel crops to meet the huge energy needs encouraged by our current and unmaintainable ways of living. http://www.greenerideal.com/science/0516-biofuels/ &