Biofuels the new renewable energy source

The age of scientific discovery and innovation makes the world realize the impact of some of our norms that were once beneficial to society, but, could now be leading us to our downfall. Agricultural lands have historically been used for consumption but with greenhouse gas emissions increasing, is it possible for us to convert our crops into fuels?

A biofuel is a fuel produced through biological processes, such as agriculture and anaerobic digestion, rather than using geological process fuels involved in the formation of fossil fuels  such as, coal and petroleum.Biofuels is a form of renewable energy that can be derived from plants or indirectly from agricultural,commercial or industrial waste. This biomass conversion can result to fuels in forms of gas, liquid or solid form.There are two different forms of biofuels;primary and secondary. Primary biofuels are organic materials that are using in unprocessed form, primarily for heating, coking and electricity production. Secondary biofuel is the processing of biomass that can be used in vehicles and industrial processes.

They are a lot of positive reasons to adapt the biofuel as renewable energy on a global scale. Biofuel is considered to be less expensive, as the world wide demand for traditional fuel increases, the supplies may decrease and the prices increase. The energy would be less expensive because they can be produced locally and if the supply and demand for this source increase, the price would decrease too. Biofuels as their name suggest are friendlier for the environment. They produce fewer toxins and have a smaller carbon output  compared to traditional fuels. It has been shown that by using biofuels, the greenhouse gases decrease by 65% . The carbon dioxide emitted by the biofuels can be absorbed out of the atmosphere by the source plants out of the atmosphere by the source plants. This would mean lower air pollution. Since biofuels are a form of renewable energy they can produce it from a variety of natural materials compared to gasoline which is a crude oil. Some countries don’t have access to crude oil and have to import it, biofuels can be produced locally and would not only decrease a country’s dependence to foreigners resources it can lead to an increase in energy security. Biofuel production can  lead to the stimulation of a local economy because manufacturing plants would need to be opened and would lead to more employment.

Shortage of food is a big problem in our current generations, our population is increasing but we don’t have enough food processed to make healthy eating affordable for everyone, leading to world hunger. According to the Food and Agriculture program of the UN, some impacts of biofuels would be on land, water and biodiversity. A common misconception that is spread is that growing crops for biofuels would lead to an immediate decline of carbon dioxide in the air. However, a report was published by the FAO states that depending on the method used to produce some of the feedstock and process the fuel, some crops can generate more greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. The report warns that the nitrous oxide used as a fertilizer to increase the crop production could lead to more global warming effect that carbon dioxide.  In the report it is stated that at first the biofuel production would be beneficial to the agriculture sector but then the generation of crop variation for economic needs will become dominant. The crops used for consumption would be displaced for other crops and will create a new demand for other crops, new land and growing new feedstock. Other pressures on the land due to biofuels would be the strain due to water scarcity and the new technology used on the soil. A result from the biofuels production is the high feeding price that would lead to high meat price. Consumption would not drop even though it would lead to a decrease in livestock production. The food supply reserved for the livestock would be used to produce biofuel. Another result of the production of biofuel would be grain price would be influence by food and energy demand factors. The food industry has been stable regarding the production of grains but the energy sector and that would result in an increase of price.

Bibliography:

“Biofuel.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Feb. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofuel.

“Liquid Biofuels for Transport Prospects, Risks and Opportunities.” Alcohol: 5. What Social and Economic Problems Are Linked to Alcohol Use?, www.greenfacts.org/en/biofuels/l-2/1-definition.htm.

Editor, Crystal Lombardo - Chief. “Green Garage.” Green Garage, 6 Apr. 2016, greengarageblog.org/10-biggest-pros-and-cons-of-biofuels.

“Environmental Impacts of Biofuels.” The Crop Site, www.thecropsite.com/articles/1771/environmental-impacts-of-biofuels/.