Publication Name

BIOFUELS

Running a car with fuel that has grown on the fields sounds like a safe

and attractive option for a climate-conscious citizen. The plants grown

for biofuel production absorb CO

from the atmosphere and combustion

of the biofuel releases only the CO

previously absorbed by the plant.

Therefore biofuels typically have far lower well-to-wheel GHG emissions

than fossil fuels. With the surge in fossil fuel prices in the recent past

and government programmes supporting the production of biofuels, the

demand for plant-based energy has risen sharply. In the United States

for example, the US Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) required in 2006

that 1 500 million litres of the US fuel supply be provided by renewable

fuels, and it is supposed to increase to 28 400 million litres in 2012.

With a further surge in demand ahead of us it is worth looking at ways

to ensure a sustainable production of energy corps. Whether biofuels are

“good” or “bad” is a matter of introducing a number of environmental and

social safeguards.

The technical facts

Bioenergy – the use of biomass – has been and in many regions still is

one of the most prominent sources of energy, in developing countries of-

ten enough inefficiently. Bioenergy refers to biomass converted to higher

value and more efficient and convenient energy carriers, such as pellets,

gas, or liquids. Most common liquid biofuels used for transportation are

ethanol and biodiesel.

Bioethanol is an alcohol that

can be made from almost any

crop that has a high content of

sugar (sugarcane or sugar beet),

starch crops (corn) or any cel-

lulosic crops. The alcohol is

mainly produced through a re-

petitive fermentation process

which involves soaking, crush-

ing or chemical extraction using

a process similar to that used in

Biofuel production

Thousand million litres per year

1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Ethanol

Biodiesel