Just how green are bio-fuels? Are they part of the solution or part of the problem?

Question

Just how green are bio-fuels? Are they part of the solution or part of the problem?

Answer 1

All fuels producing  the same hp. will produce the same CO2. The CO2 shows the work done....

Answer 2

Wow, I wish I still had my PowerPoint presentations from the biofuels class I took in college.  We attempted to do complete lifecycle analyses for corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel.

Anyway, I did a little digging for some information.  According to this, biofuels do emit significantly less greenhouse gasses when burned:

http://www.veggiebus.com/images/choice/g...

But the overall carbon footprint is not generally better, yet:

http://www.ehponline.org/members/2008/11...

Answer 3

Still a CO2 souce, but at least its renewable.

Answer 4

It just depends on the source.  Ethanol from corn in example does more harm than good.  But biodiesel from algae oil could be an extremely green fuel source.

See the links below for details.

Answer 5

Bio-fuels are not so green compared to oil.  The former requires the destruction of natural habitat to cultivate a single species and is no so good for biodiversity.  

They're also more expensive requiring substantial government subsidies to be economically compeditive.

Answer 6

I give ethanol a mixed review. In the US, ethanol fuel is produced mostly from maize. Some studies have indicated that the production of ethanol from corn consumes more energy than it yields. America’s energy policy is based solely on market forces, such as maximizing profits and investment, subsidies for Big Agriculture (corn and soy), and is not based on a sound environmental policy or alternative fuel policy.

Ethanol from corn is one of the least effective ways to produce it. It very well could be true that if maize ethanol was America’s primary source of energy, then we would all starve.

On the other hand, with better research and technology, we could make ethanol work. Produce ethanol from switchgrass and we would have better results; but, farmers would still have to plant less crops to grow a significant quantity of switchgrass to produce a worthwhile quantity of ethanol from this source.

I’ve read articles that suggests that algae can be manipulated to produce ethanol.[1] Each region of the country could have an ethanol-algae producing plant; and then, not only could farms continue to grow food items, we also would not have to worry about transporting ethanol around the country (which uses energy).

Another potential source of ethanol is landfills.[2] There is probably enough garbage rotting in landfills to produce ethanol energy for a significant portion of the nation’s energy needs. Ethanol will never be the ENTIRE solution, but combined with solar, wind, wave, and geothermal energy, we can reduce our dependency on fossil fuels.

When it comes to developing a sound energy policy, we are only limited by our lack of imagination and the political/economic power of special interests.