Ethanol A Disastrous Green Revolution That Should Not Be Trailed After

Ethanol is no wonder a controversial product, actually all biofuels expect biogas are controversial. Ask a 100 people and 50 of them would find themselves confused while answering if ethanol is an environment friendly, sustainable product or not?

If you are a corporate giant or a farmer who cultivates corn or sugarcane then ethanol is the king for you, but if you’re an environmentalist or an economist with an eye on food insecurity then ethanol is nothing but instant type of fossil fuel to you. I’ve been suffering with this agonizing dilemma of choosing the side I’m with when it comes to ethanol and other biofuels.

Thanks to the recant food [wheat] insecurity in Pakistan and recant enlightenment about the fact that we produce 7000 new babies every day in Pakistan with no technology to void the need to be feed my dilemma is over. In fact I’ve already chosen the side I’m on and my belief on this Brazilian green gold is over.

Many argue that hybrid vehicles are a step towards Eco sustainability, I disagree only on the grounds that if some batter technology & solution is already available in the form air and electricity powered engines then why not invest in there development, instead of cashing the transactional period from fossil fuel to zero emission electric, hydrogen or air powered ones.

Similar is the case with ethanol and bio fuels, if clean renewable energy can be attained through solar, wind or hydro resources then why bring a silly shift like brazil from one type of carbon emitter to another; with the mare difference of fossil fuel being drilled out of earth while ethanol requires chopping Amazon for raw material production. Depriving our children from a simple satisfying meal of backed corn.

Yup! They are expensive and efficiency is low when it comes to adopting renewable energy but its one time investment. For nations like Pakistan there are other efficient and safe solutions such as atomic power plants; after all what are they going to do with all that uranium? One year of food insecurity brought inflation to about 28 % in Pakistan and maybe another great depression is about to hit USA. Switching to renewable resources of energy slowly and steadily will ensure sustainability and progress for nations in the future. As sustainability is not measure by the number of sky scrapers in a city but by the well feed population living in them.

Fueling the future: Biodiesel

Biodiesel is renewable alternative fuel (non petroleum) produced form a wide rand of vegetable oil and animal fats. It is safe and biodegradable and the emissions are non toxic to humans.Biodiesel can be used in the pure form B100 or may be blended with petroleum diesel.Research conducted by petroleum producers have found out that petroleum diesel is better than biodiesel and bioiesel reduces the engine ware (at cost of creating less environmental hazards).The production of biodiesel on large scale is still under immense research and on the other hand, hundred and thousand of people who have switch their old and new vehicles on pure biodiesel that is produced at home yet there has not been no serious complaints about such ware and tear of the engine. It is facts that engine become a little less efficient. Another strong reason that people use biodiesel is that there is no need of war to fight over it.

According to the RTFO Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation 2007 introduced by Govt. of the United Kingdom, by 2010 their intention is that the renewable transport fuel should make 5% ,by volume of the total road transport fuel sales in the UK, by the time RTFO reaches 2010 it would be able to create a market of 2.5 billion liters of biofuels a year. This would reduce GHG emissions million tones of carbon a year. This would certainly produce an extra demand for vehicles that run on completely on biofulels. If you are planning to buy a new vehicle considering less green house gas emissions in to the atmosphere, these vehicles can come in handy for you and the environment.

Mercedes E320 CDI

VW New Beetle

VW Jetta and VW Jetta Wagon

VW Golf TDI

Liberty Jeep 2.8 Turbo diesel.

So, Don’t blow it,good planets are hard to find.

Bioethanol production and cost efficiency

Pessimistic ecological consequences of fossil fuels and concerns about petroleum supplies have spurred the search for renewable transportation biofuels. To be a feasible alternative, a biofuel should provide a net energy gain, have environmental reimbursement, be economically competitive, and be producible in large quantities without reducing food supplies. Using these criteria’s to evaluate , ethanol from corn grain and biodiesel from soybeans. Ethanol yields 25% more energy than the energy invested in its production, whereas biodiesel yields 93% more. Compared with ethanol, biodiesel releases just 1.0%, 8.3%, and 13% of the agricultural nitrogen, phosphorus, and pesticide pollutants, respectively, per net energy gain. Relative to the fossil fuels they displace, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced 12% by the production and combustion of ethanol and 41% by biodiesel. Biodiesel also releases less air pollutants per net energy gain than ethanol. These advantages of biodiesel over ethanol come from lower agricultural inputs and more efficient conversion of feedstocks to fuel. biofuel can’t replace much petroleum without impacting food supplies. Even dedicating all U.S. corn and soybean production to biofuels would meet only 12% of gasoline demand and 6% of diesel demand. Recent raise in petroleum prices, high production costs made biofuels unprofitable without subsidy. Biodiesel provides sufficient environmental advantages to merit subsidy. Transportation of biofuels such as synfuel hydrocarbons or cellulosic ethanol, if produced from low-input biomass grown on agriculturally subsidiary land or from waste biomass, could provide much greater supplies and environmental benefits than food-based biofuels.