European Pupils

Magazine
Michelle Hughes
Priestley College, Warrington, United Kingdom
michellemhughes@hotmail.co.uk

Is energy from biofuel a renewable source,

totally environmentally friendly?
Introduction matic increase in global temperature, which is taking
Energy is a very important resource which af- place so fast, the Earth’s inhabitants have not had
fects the whole of human population. It is needed for time to adapt to the changing environment. This
transport, industry and basic needs such as cooking causes loss of species, which could destroy ecosys-
and heating the home. The main source of energy tems. [1] I think this is unfair to the inhabitants of
today comes from fossil fuels, which is non renew- Earth, as there will be less diversity of species on the
able. This resource cannot be created again for the planet.
next generations. As we use this non renewable re- Scientists have used ice cores form Greenland
source we also release gases such as carbon dioxide to find out the history of the Earth’s temperature.
into the atmosphere by combustion. Great amounts The snow present in the ice cores has different ratios
of carbon dioxide have been released into the at- of oxygen isotopes existing in layers. This can re-
mosphere veal how
from power cold the air
stations, was at the
travel and time of for-
industry. mation. In
The build the colder
up of the snow the
carbon di- concentra-
o x i d e tion of
causes the light oxy-
green house gen is
e f f e c t , higher.
which in- This is one
creases the of the
global tem- methods
perature. that can
The increase help us
in global find out the
temperature tempera-
This graph form NASA shows that there is a dramatic increase
could have ture of the
in the levels of CO2 now than any other period in history.[3]
major ef- earth. [4]
fects to the planet. The increase in CO2 levels came from around
the time of the industrial revolution. That period
Climate change large amounts of fossil fuels were burnt, which re-
The global temperature over the past 100 years leased vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.
has risen 0.74 degrees Celsius. This is a great in- The burning of fossil fuels is a major contributor to
crease of temperature in a short time. In Earth’s his- the rise in CO2 levels in the atmosphere [13].
tory very low and high temperatures have been ob-
served within a long period of time. During this How does global warming occur?
time, the Earth’s inhabitants have been adapted Gases which act as green house gasses are meth-
along with the environment. Now with the dra- ane, water and carbon dioxide.
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 European Pupils
Magazine
Biofuel Energy
The increased level of carbon dioxide has an ef-
fect on global temperature, as the sunlight rays can
travel through the atmosphere but carbon dioxide
will trap the infra-red radiation heat. The earth needs
a balance of heat radiation from the sun this can be
explained by this equation:
Total power absorbed = Total power emitted [5]
This means that the release of CO2 is a major
factor in climate change
Bio diesel
Bio diesel is produced when vegetable, animal
and waste cooking oils are put though a process
called trans-esterification. This is when methanol
(alcohol) is put with oil and a catalyst is also added
to speed the chemical reaction. The product of this
reaction can be used as fuel.
This method uses a 65 ˚C temperature and con-
verts 98% of the start products to the end products.
[11]
[6][8]
Chemistry of the production of biodiesel
In order to produce bio diesel a chemical reac-
tion has to occur between a triglyceride molecule
(this can be oil) and a molecule of methanol. This
reaction takes place with a sodium hydroxide cata-
lyst. This will produce bio diesel and glycerol.
The glycerol by-product can then be used in
soaps or cosmetics. [9]
Bio ethanol
Bio ethanol is produced when sugar or starch
crops are grown and put through fermentation to
make the alcohol ethanol.
The plants use photosynthesis to produce glu-
36
cose, this may be stored as glucose and starch in the
plant. Plants such as sugar cane have to go through
hydrolysis which breaks down the complex sugars
(starch) into simple sugars with the use of enzymes.
Yeast or bacteria will be introduced to the solution.
The yeast or bacteria uses the glucose for respira-
tion and produces ethanol as a by product. [12]
Are biofuels environmentally friendly?
Positives for biofuels
We need renewable energy for the future so we
can have energy for heating, cooking and business
and we need jobs for people, so crime and poverty
rates do not increase. We predominately use non
renewable fossil fuels which will eventually run out
and will need to be replaced. As the fossil fuels run
out then the jobs that go along with the fossil fuel
industry will go, leaving people jobless. If there is
biofuel then new jobs will be created so that people
will have access to new jobs. As biofuel is renew-
able then the jobs created will be a lot more sustain-
able. [27] Thousands of jobs will be created in the
production of biofuels in the U.S. [32] I think this is
The picture shows jobs in producing
biofuels for the developing countries.
a good for the economy creating more jobs and
therefore more money and a better quality of life for
people.
As biofuels are in demand as people are now
more aware of environmental issues farmland is
needed for the crops to be grown. Businesses are
now employing farmers from less economically de-
veloped countries. This will give their economy a
boost and improve their quality of life. [15] An In-
dian biofuel company has opened a farm which
 European Pupils
Magazine
Biofuel Energy
will produce biofuel in Ethiopia. This will give jobs much pollution as conventional diesel. This will im-
to the people improving the economy. Also the prove the quality of air reducing so respiratory ill-
country will not have to import the fuels which can nesses. [16]
be expensive. [36]
To continue to develop new ways, to improve Negatives for biofuel
the efficiency of alternative energy resources, we A model produced by the Argonne National
need to keep producing different biofuels, so that we Laboratory states that biofuels can cut carbon emis-
can keep learning how to make them more efficient sions by half. However this did not include land use
for the next generation. So future generations can change.
come up with new improved ways of biofuels pro- Biofuels are carbon neutral, meaning that when
duction. Second and third generation biofuels made the source of the biofuel (such as a sugar beet plant)
from algae could be a very efficient source of en- used carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for its
ergy. [7]. Scientists have programmed bacteria to growth, the same amount of carbon dioxide is re-
self destruct, so the biofuels can produce high en- leased back into the atmosphere when it is used as a
ergy fats for high energy biofuels. [33] fuel. However this does not include the energy
Fossil fuels are our main source of energy for needed to produce the biofuels, such as the harvest-
heating and powering our ing and transportation
cars. Fossil fuels are also of the biofuels. The
a non renewable source production of the bio-
of energy so it cannot be fuel uses fossil fuels,
created for millions of therefore making the
years. As fuel is always production of the bio-
in demand, biofuel is a fuels not completely
great alterative as it is a carbon neutral. [17]
renewable source of en- This has been proven
ergy which can be pro- by a leading scientist
duced quickly for genera- from Princeton Uni-
tions to come, since the versity. He states that
plants that make the bio- the continual use of
fuel can be grown again. [16] biofuels will increase
[26] As biofuels are re- the amount of CO2 in
newable, developing Increasing biodiesel in a mixture with conventional the atmosphere due to
countries can grow their diesel, the amount of harmful emissions is reduced external factors such as
own crops, as fossil fuels irrigation and harvest-
are not readily available to them. [34] ing. [31] I think this is a very important point as bio-
The US government is implementing a new law fuels are being promoted as having no negative ma-
which will help people, who have environmentally jor effect on the environment, while they do. Biofu-
friendly cars using biofuels, save money. So if your els are a lucrative product; this is due to the increase
car has low CO2 emissions you could save money. in demand, as the public become more aware of cli-
As Biofuels are carbon neutral meaning that they mate change. It is more profitable to produce biofuel
use as much CO2 as is given out, they do not add to crops than food crops. The farmers will then use
the CO2 already in the atmosphere. [14] So consum- their land for the biofuel crops meaning there will
ers can save money. I think this is good initiative as be less land for food crops, so less food. This will
it indicates that environmentally friendly products drive the cost of the crops up and the cost of the
are supported by the government. This law is impor- food for the public. This will affect the consumer as
tant as it helps support 23,000 environment jobs.[35] they will have to pay more for their food. [15]
Biofuels are proven that they do not produce as This is true for poor countries such as Mexico,
37
 European Pupils
Magazine
Biofuel Energy
Senegal and Niger. Corn is one valuable crop for Views
many poor countries, which goes for production of Scientists
biofuel.[29] UK chief scientist professor Robert Watson has
A 5% government target of all UK fuel has to be had concerns of the sustainability and carbon output
biofuel by 2010. To produce the vast amounts of of biofuels. He had advised politicians to wait for his
biofuel requires a large amount of land. In Malaysia research results before they set biofuel targets. His
and the Amazon vast areas of the forest have been concerns were also shared by other scientists [20]
removed. The removed plants have a store of car-
bon dioxide, Politicians
[23]
so when they Former PM
are removed, G o r d o n
the plants Brown has
may be burnt set up Re-
releasing the newable
stored carbon Transport
dioxide, or Fuel Obliga-
the plant will tion meaning
decay releas- all petrol
ing, by itself, fuel has to
the carbon contain some
dioxide. With biofuel.
this, we also However
lose the wild- with the rise
life that lives in food
in the forests prices partly
which may due to the
affect ecosystems, or leads to the extinction of spe- production of biofuels. Gordon Brown is cautious
cies. This has occurred in the forests of Borneo, to completely invest in biofuels until he has all the
where the population of orang-utans have de- facts. I think that this is positive, as Gordon Brown
creased from 300,000 to 25,000, when the forests is listening to the scientists, so he is admitting that
that they live in, were being cleared for biofuel biofuels are not completely environmentally
crops. [28] [18]. I think this is a very disastrous friendly. [21]
problem, as forests are very important for ecosys-
tems. Businesses
Bio ethanol uses vast amounts of water for its Exxon Mobil a petroleum business is investing
production. It is used for the irrigation of the biofuel millions of pounds in research for the next genera-
crops and for the process of making the actual biofu- tion of biofuels from algae. So it is supportive of
els. For the production of bio ethanol 4.2 gallons of biofuels.
water is needed to produce 1 gallon of ethanol. So Shell, which buys and sells biofuels, is aware of
the water used is more than 4 times more than the the sustainability problems of biofuels. Shell is also
ethanol produced. Clean water is becoming scarcer. looking at how to improve the production of biofu-
In 50 years we may run out of clean water for food els by changing the feedstock and improving the ef-
production and our sanitation needs. So water has to ficiency. [22]
be used in an efficient manner. [19] This is true in
the mid west of America, where they use vast Conclusion
amounts of water for the irrigation of biofuel crops. From my research it seems that the negatives
This contributes to their water shortages. [30] outweigh the positives. The biofuels can create
38
 European Pupils
Magazine
Biofuel Energy
more harm than good from the release of CO2. This
extra CO2 comes from the production of the biofu-
els, with machinery which uses fossil fuels. So this
aspect is not environmentally friendly. Along with
the vast water usage for production. The use of the
unsustainable raw materials does not make this way
of getting energy very sustainable, so it is not very
environmentally friendly. The effect of deforestation
is also a major problem, as the loss of species from
the destruction of habitats may ruin whole ecosys-
tems.
I do not think the continual production of biofu-
els will be good for the environment until biofuels,
which do not emit emissions from their production
and therefore be fully carbon neutral, can be pro-
duced. However, it does bring economic benefits
creating new jobs for people, mainly in the develop-
ing countries. So I think improved methods and
technologies for producing energy should be re-
searched in order to find a truly environmentally
friendly energy source.
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