Biofuels aren’t new. We’ve been using them for years. Oil, coal, whale blubber, yep, blubber. Anything that started out as a living thing which we then turn to fuel is a biofuel. The term has become "sexy" in the energy business because it gets people to open their eyes and listen.
The question is what alternate biofuels are even worth pursuing? Is it economically feasible? Is it environmentally sound? Are we getting more energy out of the process than we’re putting in?
Major producers are currently using corn and sugar cane as the main raw ingredients. Sugar cane is a better solution because it is already produced as a by-product of sugar mills producing sugar. Little extra energy needs to be put into the system. Sugar cane is also a grass, believe it or not, and it grows readily without the introduction of large amounts of fertilizer. Corn on the other hand costs much more to produce ethanol from, requires a lot of fertilizer and experts say will add to global warming through the growing and production process.
Two other options out there include algae and the Jatropha Tree. Algae can be used to produce biodiesel, bioethanol and biobutanol. Algae has a faster growing rate than other terrestrial crops and can produce up 20,000 gallons of extracted oil per square acre. This oil is then refined. The trick is to find a strain of algae that has a high lipid content that isn’t too difficult to harvest and is cost-effective to cultivate. At present the cost to produce is too high to be cost-effective.
The Jatropha Tree is a shrub that grows in poor soil and actually revitalizes the soil for other crops. A possible solution is to entice countries with low labor costs to grow jatropha trees and export it to other industrialized countries. This can be depicted as a win-win scenario for everyone involved.
Right now politicians and the auto industry are touting corn as the United States solution to reducing our dependence on foreign oil. This is definitely more posturing and hype than reality.
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3 Comments
Jon Thurber
New alternative fuels are hard to come by. We have developed a new renewable technology that is efficent. But getting support and attention is tough.
Urmila Doraswami
Europe which seemed eager to embrace the large-scale production and use of biofuels, seems to be taking a moment to step back and do some serious thinking.
It will be second generation biofuels, and like you point out, those made from algae (which grow on water and don’t compete for land with food crops) or non-food crops like Jatropha which will be the primary sources of biofuels for the future.
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Michel
I think algae biofuels offer something very important, the CO2 sequestration. This can help many facilities that run biodiesel processors and ethanol still. Jatropha biodiesel and methane digesters are really important where the infrastructure is difficult to setup for the algae photo bioreactors or raceway ponds.