Biofuels explained

What are some examples of biofuels?

Biofuels are interesting choices as alternative energy sources. They are intriguing because they are renewable energy sources, clean, environmentally friendly, and often more efficient than most fossil fuels.

To paraphrase a common definition, biofuels are "solid, liquid, or gaseous fuels derived from recently dead biological material." Sounds enticing, doesn't it?

You might feel better once you realize that most biofuels are made from common photosynthetic plants. For example, throughout Europe, over 25% of home heating is accomplished with wood pellets, wood chips, and/or straw. In addition, just as fossil fuels, water, and geothermal energy are used to produce electricity and steam, biofuels can produce this energy with up to 90% efficiency.

Crops that have a high content of sugar, like sugar cane, or starch, like corn, are wonderful items to create ethanol, a very efficient biofuel. Another excellent base is plants that have high levels of vegetable oil, like soybeans, which can be easily converted to biodiesel fuel. Finally, wood (and its byproducts) can be converted to both methanol and ethanol, clean burning biofuels.

Are biofuels efficient alternative energy sources?

The biofuels noted above are efficient and highly effective alternative energy sources. They fit the perfect description of superior alternative energy options. They are:

Renewable

Crops that can serve as a base for biofuels, like wheat, sugar, corn, etc., are renewable on an annual basis. Whether grown for food or biofuel creation, these crops can be produced in large quantities.

Using currently effective crop and soil management techniques, the farming community should be able to produce sufficient products to make creating biofuels feasible.

Environmentally friendly

Biofuels made from common plants are non-polluting and eco-system safe in most environments. While no solution is perfect, biofuels, unless misused, are little threat to even the most fragile eco-systems.

The primary additive needed to convert crops to biofuels is yeast, another natural substance. Except for the energy, typically electricity, needed to perform the conversion, both the creation and use of biofuels is environmentally friendly.

Clean

There are few fossil fuels (oil, gasoline, natural gas, etc.) that are classified as clean burning. Biofuels, however, are efficient, create few waste products, and generate no environmentally dangerous by-products. The use of natural, carbon-based raw material, like recently harvested plants, results in using renewable environmentally friendly substances to create both natural and clean energy.

Biofuels are a potentially wonderful option as alternative energy sources. The only important remaining consideration is the ability to generate this energy on a large scale.

Can biofuels someday replace fossil fuels?

Most experts would agree that biofuels have the potential to replace fossil fuels as a primary energy source for most common uses. However, a few issues must be resolved before biofuels can effectively replace our dependence on fossil fuels.

The primary problem is the throughput methods necessary to convert a corn crop to usable biofuel. The conversion itself is not a problem, but moving the crop to the processing facility involves the ironic use of fossil fuel.

For example, the planting of the crop is typically done by machines using diesel fuel or gasoline. When harvest time occurs, machinery using fossil fuels must gather up the crops. The harvested crops must be transported to the biofuel processing facility.

Therefore, trucks using gasoline or diesel fuel will transport the crop to the processing location. Processing the crop into biofuels also involves the use of electricity, at a minimum. Unless this electricity was produced from hydropower (water), wind energy, or geothermal power, fossil fuels will be consumed to produce the energy used in the conversion to biofuel.

The necessity of using large amounts of fossil fuel to produce large quantities of biofuels is a real-world situation that needs resolution. As more hybrid and alternatively fueled vehicles, tractors, and other agricultural and transport machinery is developed, the efficiency of producing biofuels will improve.

This temporary detour to efficient mass production of biofuels should be resolved in the future. As long as agricultural soil and Mother Nature continue to cooperate, growing and harvesting crops that can become clean, efficient biofuels in solid, liquid, or gaseous form may become a wonderful solution to the quest for clean renewable energy.