Biofuels have many challenges; however so has so many other renewable resources which are being looked at as new energy. Technological challenges have been seen in every energy source even still with oil and coal we face new challenges to burn them cleaner. Biofuels are a source of sugar crops, natural oils from plants and from wood. These natural plant resources are renewable and burn cleaner than fossil fuels. Economical and sustainable challenges could be met to incorporate biofuels into our everyday life if we could find a way to make it more users friendly to the consumer, producer and environment.
Biofuels come from sources such as plant materials which hold natural oils that are extracted and through a process of hydrogenation or refining the result is a more compatible biodiesel. The process of fermenting crops helps to create a bio-petrol product which can come from the sugar cane (Biofuels, 2009). Some of the issues behind implanting biofuels are social, economic, and environmental challenges. A life-cycle perspective is needed to deal with the challenges. McKone from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and author of “Grand Challenges for Life-Cycle Assessment of Biofuels” says there are seven major challenges which need to be addressed. The Life-Cycle Assessment is used to evaluate what they call the cradle to the grave cycle and the impact to human activity (Yarris, 2011).
The use of biomass for instance if being used for biofuels will lessen what is harvested for food. This could have an impact on market price. The World Bank listed biofuels as one of the causes for the 104.5 percent increase in the market price for corn products on the market between 2000 and 2012. According to the Global Post in 2012 corn crop...
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Biofuels (2009) Will biofuels save the planet, retrieved from: http://www.biofuels.co.uk/
BioFuels Journal (2014) International Researchers Examine Low-Water Biodiesel Production, retrieved from: http://www.biofuelsjournal.com/articles/International_Researchers_Examine_Low_Water_Biodiesel_Production-139685.html
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Lynn Yarris (2011) Challenges for Biofuels – New Life Cycle Assessment Report from Energy Biosciences Institute, retrieved from: http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2011/02/08/lca-challenges-for-biofuels/
Yan Gao, Margaret Skutsch, Omar Masera, Pablo Pacheco (2011) A global analysis of deforestation due to biofuel development, retrieved from: http://www.cifor.org/publications/pdf_files/WPapers/WP68Pacheco.pdf
As stated earlier, the burning of fossil fuels to produce energy is one of the largest contributors to global warming. This non-environmentally friendly energy source has to be replaced in order to keep the world going. There is a type of energy source that seems easy to create and doesn’t require radical changes: Biofuels. Biofuels are a greener version of diesel and oil. They are any solid, liquid, or gas fuels produced from organic matter; the range of organic materials used for biofuel production includes plants such as corn, sugar cane, soy, and wheat; vegetable oils and animal fats; ...
Tyner, Wallace. “The U.S. Ethanol and Biofuels Boom: Its Origins, Current Status, and Future Prospects.” BioScience. August 2008. Vol 58 (7):646
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...
Will, George F. "The Biofuel Follies. " Newsweek. 151.06 (Feb 11, 2008): 64. General Reference Center Gold. Gale. GILA RIDGE HIGH SCHOOL. 20 Feb. 2015
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Energy, especially from fossil fuels, is a key ingredient for all sectors of a modern economy and plays a fundamental role in improving the quality of life in less developed economies. In 2007, India is ranked fifth in the world in terms of energy demand; accounting for 3.6% of total energy consumed, and is expected to grow at 4.8% in the future. India imports 70% of the oil it uses, and the country has been hit hard by the increasing price of oil, uncertainty and environmental hazards that are concerned with the consumption of fossil fuels. In such context, bio energy constitutes a suitable alternative source of energy for India, as large amounts of raw material are available to be harnessed.
This is alarming since recent data indicates these enormous forests are land-dwelling carbon absorbers that could help to slow worldwide climate alteration. The United Nations ' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates “eighteen million acres of forests have been destroyed worldwide;” and NASA forecasts “that if current deforestation rates are not reduced, rainforests could become entirely eradicated in a century.” The nations with substantial deforestation are Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Africa (The Democratic Republic of Congo included), and remote areas of Eastern Europe. Indonesia, the country with the greatest deforestation within the last century, has lost approximately forty million acres of indigenous
Many researchers like Hossain and David Pimentel are finding out more capable products to make a bioethanol. It includes natural resources, especially starch, vegetables, fruits and a product rich in sugar. For example in 2014 Alemayehu Gashaw tried to make a bioethanol from fruit waste and also concluded that when he increase the temperature he also get a greater amount of bioethanol. According to him “Lignocellulosic biomass has been used as one of the main resources for economically attractive bioethanol production. Though ethanol yields from sugar and starch and these are higher than from lignocelluloses these conventional sources are insufficient for worldwide bio ethanol production”. However in 2011 Hossain, Alshammari, Mustafa and
The concept of this essay is to stress that biofuels are a viable and sustainable energy source than fossil fuels, showing its advantages but not ignoring its disadvantages which also enlightens us about the cleaner and renewable natural resources. Biofuels is an alternative source of energy which can end the global dependence on fossil fuels.
Scientists themselves are just beginning to understand the serious problems caused by deforestation. Deforestation occurs all over the world by all types of people. Peasant farmers even add to the problem because in most tropical countries the farmers are very poor only making between eight hundred and fifty four hundred dollars annually (NASA Facts). Therefore, they do not have enough money to buy what they need to live therefore they must farm to raise crops for food and to sell. In these poor countries the majority of people are peasant farmers this farming adds up to a great deal of deforestation. These farmers chop down a small area of trees for there plot to farm on and burn the tree trunks (NASA Facts). The combined number of farmers maintaining this process creates a great deal of clearing and burning of the land they need to cultivate, which results in land being treeless. Commercial logging is also another common form of deforestation. This commercial logging wipes out massive amounts of land sometimes deforesting several miles at...
People have been deforesting the Earth for thousands of years, primarily to clear land for crops or livestock. Although tropical forests are largely confined to developing countries, they aren’t just meeting local or national needs; economic globalization means that the needs and wants of the global population are bearing down on them as well. Direct causes of deforestation are agricultural expansion, wood extraction (e.g., logging or wood harvest for domestic fuel or charcoal), and infrastructure expansion such as road building and urbanization. Rarely is there a single direct cause for deforestation. Most often, multiple processes work simultaneously or sequentially to cause deforestation.
Allen, Julia C., and Douglas F. Barnes. "The Cause of Deforestation in Developing Countries." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 1985: 163-184. Print.
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