Are biofuels worth all of the current national and global attention and, indeed, are they even worth pursuing as an alternative to petroleum? A sober and reasoned approach to the issue would conclude that biofuels do have a limited place, but only if produced and used responsibly.
An accepted definition for the term ‘biofuel' is a combustible, carbon-based liquid or gas which is derived from the starches, sugars and oils from agricultural products and coproducts, vegetable and municipal waste, forestry products and lignocelluloses (woody) plants. For most of us, the most widely available of these fuels are ethanol and biodiesel fuels. Both of these fuels fill a niche in our energy requirements and are useful components in the overall, responsible solution to issues of energy supply and climate change. On their own merits of energy yield, disruption to global agriculture and pollution, however, biofuels simply will never be able to be cleanly produced in the requisite volumes needed to displace petroleum as society's primary fuel source.
The most predominantly cited biofuel source crops - corn, soybeans, sunflower, switch grass and biomass derived from woody vegetation - require far more energy to produce than is realized from the biofuel itself. Soybean-derived fuel requires 27 percent more fossil fuel energy; corn 29 percent; switch grass 45 percent; woody biomass 57 percent and sunflower an astonishing 118 percent more energy to produce than is gained from its combustion. Factors considered in these assessments include the amount of energy used in the production of the petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides applied to fields in order to obtain viable yields; the energy required for agricultural machinery, irrigation and transportation, and the energy inputs necessary for the commercial fermentation and distillation of the desired volatile fuels from the aqueous mixture.
Other biofuel crops used around the world include wheat, sugar cane, sugar beets, palm oil and rapeseed oil. All biofuels produced from conventional crops cited in this article create direct competition with their use for human consumption and animal feed.
Much has been made by agricultural organizations and government agencies of the tremendous capacity for job creation in the United States in the biofuels industry. The USDA has published that 17,000 jobs are created for every billion gallons of ethanol produced and that 30,000 jobs are supported by the industry. This level of employment has been at the expense of 750 million bushels of corn which otherwise would have been used for animal feed. Fully one third of all corn grown in the United States will go to the production of ethanol in 2008. The economic consequences of the competition with their use for feeds and food have already been felt in the United States with prices of meats and poultry inevitably increasing.
Once burned as a source of fuel, biofuels have their own issues of air pollution. Combustion products lead to increases in the precursors of low level ozone as well as elevated levels of carcinogens, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and particulates.
Biofuels can never replace fossil fuels as the major combustible energy. There is hope, however, of those alternative fuels contributing to the overall goal of decreased dependence on petroleum. Research continues globally to increase biofuels' efficiency, independence from traditional agricultural lands and to reduce its impact on the environment.
