Biofuels an Alternative Energy Source
Biofuels are an alternative energy source to the fossil fuels and are produced by converting organic matter into fuel for powering primarily our cars and trucks. We are currently far to dependant on fossil fuels. Biofuels include under their umbrella ethanol and other derivatives of plants such as sugar cane, as well as vegetable and corn oils. Maybe it should be noted here that not all ethanol products are designed to be used as a kind of gasoline. Officials do tell us that though ethanol presently only comprises two percent of the world’s usable gasoline, by 2025 it could be up to 10 percent, and up to 30 percent by 2050.
We still have a long way though to be able to refine and make these biofuels economic and practical. We have yet to develop biofuels that are as energy efficient as gasoline made from petroleum a study by Oregon State University says. Energy efficiency is the measure of how much usable energy is able to be made from a certain amount of input energy. This University study found corn-derived ethanol is only 20% energy efficient while gasoline made from petroleum is 75% energy efficient. Biodiesel fuel was a lot better at 69% energy efficiency. A study that did turn up positive was cellulose-derived ethanol which charted at 85% efficiency. That is even higher than that of the fantastically efficient nuclear energy.
Even the stock market seems to be saying things are changing. Oil futures have been down on the New York Stock Exchange recently. Analysts from several different countries believe this is because people are predicting a surge in biofuel availability which would offset the value of oil. This has dropped crude oil prices on the international market to around $40 per barrel. Not only that; but the grain futures market is starting to “steal” investment activity away from the oil futures market. Investors are definitely expecting better profitability to start coming from biofuels. It is being predicted by a majority of analysts that biofuels will be supplying seven percent of the entire world’s transportation fuels by the year 2030. If the government goes forward with subsidizing firms distributing biofuels and continues the push to promote the use of eco-friendly fuel, it is expected that growth in demand for diesel and gasoline will slow down dramatically.
There are several countries that are seriously involved in the development of biofuels.
- Brazil, which happens to be the world’s biggest producer of ethanols. It produces approximately three and a half billion gallons of ethanol per year.
- The United States is the world’s greatest fuel user and is not doing too bad as it is already the second largest producer of biofuels behind Brazil.
- Canada is in the mix and has started to seriously produce biofuels.
- The European Union’s biodiesel production now has a capacity in excess of four million (British) tonnes. The EU’s biodiesel fuels are 80 percent derived from rapeseed oil and soybean oil. A marginal quantity of palm oil comprises the other 20 percent.
In the continuing battle on global warming and with diminishing oil reserves Biofuels are an important weapon in our arsenal. Unlike other alternative fuels, biofuels force little or no changes in our modes of transport used by most consumers today. The technology used to create biofuels is getting better all the time and the “bio” parts of the ingredients are totally renewable. It is certainly a move for the better.
2 comments
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment
Read more
« Alternative Energy on a Larger Scale
A Biofuel That’s Really Taking Off »
Khalil Environmental posted on February 12, 2010:
Biomass is simply organic materials such as manure, corn and so on. Khalil Environmental
GeenaXR33 posted on February 23, 2010:
I like your writing style. You should write more especially on this topic. We are all thinking more about going green but we don’t really do a lot about it but blogs like yours will help me for sure.
When students stuck with argumentative term paper accomplishing, thence I will offer to buy essays from some good comparison essay writing service under such circumstances.