Are biofuels an environmentally bad idea?
By Uroborus
@Uroborus (908)
Canada
August 3, 2008 9:43pm CST
There is a boom happening right now in the biofuels industry. The US, Canada and Europe are planning to increase production 10 fold over the next 10 years. The published research I've seen has more papers that show a negative benefit for the environment, with few papers showing that it will help. The negative effects have to do with the amount of agricultural land needed to produce the corn and other grains that go into making biofuels, and the energy needed to convert the material into the fuel.
It takes more energy to produce a litre of ethnanol fuel than you get when you burn the fuel. A lot of research shows that the use of biofuels is adding to the global warming problem.
Are biofuels worth pursuing?
4 responses
@Tanewha (69)
• Germany
4 Aug 08
Yes biofuels are worth perusing but only if the non-food part of the plant is used. For example if the husk and the stalk of a corn plant is used but the cob is used for food. This means that there needs to be more research into efficiently converting cellulose into fuels and not just the plant sugars. Also there needs to be a move away from petroleum based fertilisers. At the moment there is no gain for the environment and food is being taken out of the mouths of the poor with the usual rich companies filling their coffers with the cooperation of corrupt politians.
@xParanoiax (6987)
• United States
20 Oct 08
Biofuels aren't a bad idea, exactly, CORN ETHANOL is a bad idea. Corn ethanol is a biofuel, but obviously not all biofuels are corn ethanol.
As far as I can see, we need to think about side-affects of any ideas concerning biofuels before we go, "AHA BRILLIANT".
I'm heavily in favor of algae-fuel...which NOT being something that feeds people or animals, and also being something very easy to cultivate/grow...and much more quickly than things like corn...I don't see why we can't find creative ways for this to actually become beneficial.
Alot of biofuels currently already out there are mostly bad because fossil fuels are used to harvest the product needed to make them, and because they take up too much space, and sometimes they're made from things used as FOOD.
Energy isn't something so simple that we can just take any idea and it will work, it needs alot of thought.
@purplehyacinth (575)
• Philippines
14 Aug 08
if we wont use biofuels, and we use purely petroleum-derived fuels, the more we will face global warming. The major problem with biofuels is, most sources are food materials. Biofuels are not a bad idea if the raw materials are wastes like biodiesel from waste cooking oil.
