Study Touts Biofuels Despite High Cost of Production
Reno, NV - In the latest issue of the Journal Science, researchers report
that biofuel manufactured from corn and other plants is more energy-efficient
than some experts had realized and it is time to start developing it as an
alternative to fossil fuels.
The researchers said that most ethanol production is from corn crops, which
use lots of petroleum based fuel and fertilizers and so its environmental
benefits are not that great. The scientists suggested that alternative
crops need to be considered for biofuel production that uses less
fertilizer.
Critics say biofuels like ethanol benefit the farm lobby more than it does
the environment.
"We find that ethanol can, if it is made correctly, contribute significantly
to both energy and environmental goals. However, the current way of producing
ethanol with corn probably only meets energy goals," Alexander Farrell,
a University of California Berkeley energy researcher said.
Farrell and his associates conducted the study on biofuels and found that
there are ways manufacture ethanol fuel more efficiently.
In 2004, Farrell said that the amount of ethanol fuel manufactured and
blended into gasoline in the United States equaled only 2 percent of
the nation's total gasoline consumption and about 1.3 percent of its
energy content.
Farrell said it was possible to run a car on pure ethanol, that the technology
exists but that making ethanol using current technology is expensive and
contributes to pollution and greenhouse gases.
"The environmental cost comes entirely from making fertilizer, running the
tractors over the farm and operating the biorefinery," Farrell said.
Farrell and colleagues looked at six studies used to argue for and against
the development of ethanol as an energy source.
He said that using cellulosic technology to break down the woody fiber parts
of plants could in about five-years from now be applied commercially in a
more effective manner than using corn. That it was a matter of the
technology developing sufficiently to warrant its commercial viability.
Scientists from Imperial College London, Georgia Tech and Oak Ridge National
Laboratory in Tennessee said they had teamed up to find ways to make a
facility to do that.
Their facility would make a range of fuels, foods, chemicals, animal
feeds, materials, heat and power using what is known as biomass -- a
collection of renewable plant matter and biological material such as
trees, grasses and agricultural crops.
"We're looking at a future for biomass where we use the entire plant and
produce a range of different materials from it," Charlotte Williams of
Imperial's Department of Chemistry said in a statement.
"Before we freeze in the dark, we must prepare to make the transition
from nonrenewable carbon resources to renewable bioresources," her team wrote.
Even a British Petroleum (BP) scientist agreed with biofuel's potential
saying that it had the capacity to generate as much as 30 percent of the
world's fuel needs if it could be harnessed efficiently and the right crops
were grown for energy production. The BP scientist even said that it
would not interfere with the world's food crop production either.
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