What are the chances of us switching from fossil fuels to biofuels?

Question

This is a 7 page paper and i need all types of info that can help me!

Answer 1

Both are equally dangerous. In many countries, bio fuels means adding palm oil etc to conventional fuels. If you calculate the net energy loss and the net carbon dioxide emission, almost both will be same. If biofuels are derived solely from non-conventional sources, then are the best. Conventional fuel suppliers/traders will not allow this to happen so easily.

Answer 2

i found out that Jatropha curcas oil ,when blended with diesel upto 50% can be an effective biofulel for diesel engines.People gradually realise this potency and the administrative machinery has been geared up in this direction.The plant requires only the edges of crop fields and the banks of rivers and lakes and waste lands.The oil atleast can meet the domestic needs when exploited  properly.There are other biofuels which await furthur work.What we need today is an urgent mechanism to work effectively  in this dirction. When biofulels are more economical and freely available people will not hesitate to switch over from fossil fuels to biofulels.

Answer 3

The quantity of fuel that would be required for a total switch is just not available from existing raw material supplies.  An illustration is a story that Yahoo posted a few months back. Researchers estimated that to run the everage car for one year from ethanol, it would require 16 acres of farmland to grow the necesarycorn.  Now multiply 16 acres by the number of cars on the road, and you get the picture.

Answer 4

there simply is not enough land to provide the energy we would require and continue to support food crops. just as there is not enough land and material to sufficiently utilize solar energy as the only means of electricity. alternative fuels are just that: alternates. and must be used complementary to each other. only a mixture of geothermal, hydrogen, solar, wind and all the other resources can provide us with the full spectrum of energy resources we as a society need to fulfill energy requirements.

Answer 5

Biofuels are just as bad in terms of emissions because they still allow NOx and VOC's to form which in turn cause ozone pollution at the surface: the bad ozone.

Also, the components of biofuels are also bad for the environment.  Corn raises humidity, which causes more storms in the Midwest.  Corn agricultural practices also release ozone depleting compounds (the kind that are long enough lived to reach the stratosphere) and more corn also means more farmland not used for food.  Additionally, more farmland means more water usage and more dust when the lands are no longer able to be used.  This burden is far worse than greenhouse gases alone.

Even as an environmentalist, I understand the next big fuel is going to HAVE to be nuclear, because it's able to heat more and is still affordable.  Hydrogen, although very promising, is not chugging along fast enough for us to have a viable energy source in the next 20 years.

Nuclear energy is relatively safe and the "waste" everyone talks about is not as dangerous as people think because obviously, when it's no longer uranium 237 or plutonium is not as radioactive.  Radioactive waste typically comes from unused warheads, etc.  Hippies that don't know what they are talking about often confuse the two.

So in short: biofuels, although sulfur free, are NOT a good choice so the chances of switching are very, very slim.

Answer 6

The chances are not that good because biofuels, like the fossil fuels, require burning and any type of burning shouldn't be encouraged in the face of global warming. Also as one person answered, it takes up a lot of land area that could be used to produce food.  

Although personally i think biofuels are a good source of fuel while in transition to a cleaner source of energy but these should be planted in areas that can't be used for either food production or residential areas like for example abandoned landfill sites.  

It's more realistic to think about future energy sources from solar or wind or hydroelectric or hydrogen power that doesn't burn anything and doesn't run out.  

Biofuels are getting a bad reputation because the sudden demand for it in developed countries made the developing nations cut down and burn their own forests to plant biofuels for export.

Answer 7

well, it depends when your talking about, we will definitely have to make that change eventually (if humans are still living)

and personally i think we really need to sort this problem out.

Not many people will want to/be bothered to change for various reasons

Answer 8

None.

if you calculate the the energy requirements of the country, the acreage available for bio-fuel planting, (keep in mind, you still have to eat), and the solar to bio-fuel energy conversion, you'll see that it's a completely impossible goal.  sorry.  and if you think about the population density of china and india, it's far worse there.

Answer 9

Bio fuels are the best option for us but we will need a lot of resources including man power, land and money to convert from fossil to bio and this is a hindrence. Although amount of money we need to put in does not matter when we are taking about environmental, water and pure air saftey of our children and coming generations. As for land waste land which are not having any forests and cannot be used for agriculture can be used to plant trees for bio fuel.

We have many option of renueable energy like:

BIO FUEL

GOBAR (BIO) GAS

SOLAR

WIND

If we need to switch to more environmental friendly options we will have to work out and use all above options depending on region, situation and requirement.

We can use Solar power at villages inside forests this will have two benefits, we will be able to provide them with power and this power will not be harmful for our wildlife.

In villages we can also use Gobal Gas based electricity generation plants which are run with a combination fuel of Jatropha Diesel and Bio Gas. Human Habitations should be powered by bio fuel and environmental friendly power generation technology only.

If we start using all these kind of option big hydro and nuclear plants will be required to provide electricity for industrial and agricultural purpose only and this will be really nice. If our dependency on fossil fuel goes down it will be good for our coming generations and bio diversity as well.

Answer 10

There is a lot of chance.. but not just one kind of bio fuel. it will probably be a combination of a few of them.. like have biogas plants for domestic use, biofuels from plants for automobiles and electricity from biomass (that is producing electricity from gases of biotic origins, similar to a biogas plant)  but this will have to community efforts more than a national initiative.. 'coz the government cannot produce enough biomass for the whole country.. so we'll have to ensure we use ours well.. but all of this will take a few years, before their utilities are proven by research.. for the time being to reduce pressures on the fossil fuels, using the E85 for automobiles (which has 85% ethanol and 15% petrol) is a good option..

Answer 11

It would be very hard to meet our current energy needs with biofuels. Remember it requires land to produce energy crops. Much of that land is currently given over to food production.