A look at Biofuel

Biofuel can be broken down into fuel made from plants. There are many forms; however, there are a few to focus on. Ethanol, Biodiesel, and Biomass have come to the forefront over the past 10 years, and have even caught the attention of the government. With increasing environmental concern, the government has shifted some focus to the creation and use of biofuel to take the strain off of fossil fuel use. In the U.S. alone, 138 million gallons of oil are consumed a year.

Ethanol is made from corn or sugar cane. It is utile is many different scenarios, from cars to airplanes. Most gas fuel nowadays is made with 10% ethanol, and is marked with an E10 on the pump. This make the gasoline around 6% less efficient than if it were solely gasoline. For airplanes, such as those used by Continental and Lufthansa, the fuel is 50% ethanol, and although it is better for the environment, it is 2.5 times more expensive. In the case of the airlines, it is solely for publicity and has no monetary benefit whatsoever. As previously mentioned, ethanol is made from corn or cane sugar. The process, however, is debated. Is takes three gallons of water to make one gallon of ethanol, and fossil fuels are used in the process as well. Although the process of refining corn into ethanol isn’t the most efficient, the amount of exhaust reaching the ozone is significantly smaller. Over the past ten years, this process has evolved to become more and more efficient and with time ethanol will prove to be a solid alternative to gasoline.

The main points politicians and environmentalists are making are that ethanol can be domestically produced, it is renewable, and it is cleaner burning than gasoline. Ethanol, when burned, releases up to 80% less toxins into the air, creating less pollution. The fact that ethanol can be produced domestically also helps to decrease its cost in that we are not paying for transportation from, say, the middle east.

A company in Wyoming called KL Process Design Group is now using woodchips instead of corn to product ethanol. It is believed that the waste to fuel industry will become stronger than the crop to fuel industry.

Other forms of biofuel are biodiesel, made from vegetable oil, and biomass, made from burning plant or tree matter to generate electricity. This process is very common throughout California, Maine, and Michigan.

The biofuel industry has created a much greater demand for crops in the United States, as 33% of the U.S. corn crop goes to ethanol production, and in doing so, the farming industry has become a stronger force. With this great demand, American farmers have seen much improvement in their earnings. But this also comes at a cost. With a third of the corn crop being dedicated to fuel production, the price for corn has increased, as well as many others. So what is better? Planting corn for fuel, or planting corn for food? This debate has been rallied all over the world, as European countries follow suit. Ethanol uses a lot of water, and a lot of crop to create little product, but the positive effects the change to ethanol provides for the environment as the rest of the worlds fossil fuels and resources has over the past ten years overshadowed the increase in price of corn.

The environment has become a central concern of the government as well as the people, so with these fuel processes evolving over time, the negative effects and consequences of biofuel production will eventually reach next to nothing.