Arguments For And Against Biofuels

The human body has always needed energy -food – for the most important and vital day to day activities. A major role for the production of the energy which keeps us viable and in motion is carried out by the sun. The importance of the Sun as an energy provider was underlined by Stephen (1977): “The sun provides these foods, or bio-fuels, that keep us alive, and fossil fuels are in a sense stored bio-fuels, for they were living organisms eons ago.” Carbon is the main denominator of bio-fuels, somehow a byproduct of the sunlight is derived from biomass or bio-waste. The entire biomass or bio-waste like renewable bio-fuels as methane, organic waste and liquid fuels are abundant in carbon. This essay will consider the advantages and disadvantages of using bio-fuels and it mainly will refer to renewable biomass or bio-waste. Finally, this study will weigh and conclude if the using of bio-fuels is worth the effort.

We live in a world where fossil fuels – coal and oil – are vital for heat, transportation and electricity. The issue which concerns us the most is the fact that we are going inevitably to run out somewhere in the future. We cannot afford millions of years until the nature provides us with new reserves of coal and oil, therefore the solution would be to use bio-fuels on a current basis. The most effective answer to the energy shortage which lies in front of us is the renewable energy, for instance solar, tidal, wind, geothermal and hydraulic power. The energy sources mentioned above are cost effective and for the most part environment friendly, besides that we are never going to exhaust the sunlight or the wind for the simple fact that those resources are naturally replenished which makes this solution a permanent one.

Furthermore, as Kruger (2006) stated “Biomass (and the bio-energy obtained from it) comes from agriculture.” There is an abundance of plants from which we can produce bio-energy. The most common substances known for their bio-energy producing properties are starch and peat. We can extract starch from plants such as potatoes, rice, corn and cassava; these plants are known for their cost-effective production and they can be found in almost every corner of the planet being cultivated by men from a very long time. In author’s opinion peat can be more effective – cost effective, for the simple reason that it is found in the nature, compared to the starch which is a byproduct of a cultivated plant – than starch in the production of bio-fuels for it can be found on a very large scale around the world. According to the World Energy Council (2007)” […] the total area of peat lands approaches 3 million km², or about 2% of the total land surface”. Nevertheless, there are many other plants from which we can produce bio-fuels, especially for transportation. The most well-known bio-fuel used for transportation is the bio-ethanol produced from starch, sucrose (a byproduct extracted from sugarcane and sugar beet), lactose and cellulose. The most important advantage of the bio-ethanol is that besides the fact that this bio-fuel assures the availability of fuel for transportation in the future, it makes an enormous contribution for the limitation of carbon dioxide emissions. For example, as Guderjahn in Handbook of Fuels edited by Elvers (2008) states that bio-ethanol “[…] engines have been utilized in buses that have been used for more than 15 years by the municipal transportation companies in Sweden […]. The number of ethanol-fuelled buses in the country is around 400.”

Moreover, another source exploited for the production of bio-fuel is animal and human waste such as animal dung, municipal waste and sewage. These wastes by the process of anaerobic digestion – in absence of the oxygen – are transformed into methane gas, fuel used mainly for heating. Its benefits are incontestable, for it replaces coal, the limited fossil fuel. In addition, the production of biogas can facilitate removal of the human waste and litter from the sewage systems and landfills around the major cities.

On the other hand, the production of bio-fuels has some drawbacks concerning the environment, health, safety and energy consumption. As far as concerning the wind power energy, disadvantages that mainly bears on the wind mills such as noise pollution, falling blades and structural problems caused by the vibrations leads to injury and damage to the surroundings and sometimes to employees who are working on the construction and maintenance. In addition, wind mills interfere with the flight paths of birds affecting their migratory habits.

There are many other environmental and economic aspects regarding renewable energy, such as fish migration and health that are affected by the temperature changes of water tanks used to produce electricity by hydraulic power. Furthermore, the construction of tidal power plants sometimes can raise question marks considering the extremely high costs and the electrical output generated. Geothermal energy production facilities can lead to land subsidence and pollution caused by the sulfur and ammonia thrown into the waste water.

Regarding the use of biomass to produce bio-energy scientists underlined some specific problems, such as: health, safety, air pollution and the large amount of energy consumption for the collection of biomass. Ih-Liu (1998) gave an example: “Yunnan Province, in Xuan Wei County in China, has the highest rate of lung cancer in China for both its male and female populations. […]In 1982, […] scientists discovered that polycyclic organic compounds were being released from coal and wood-burning stoves […] which are carcinogens, are by-products of incomplete burning of the biomass […]”.

This assignment has explained the case for and against the use of bio-fuels. One of the important ideas within this essay is that in the future the planet will run out of the widespread fossil fuels-coal and oil-utilized for almost everything that puts humankind in motion. Despite the fact that in the future bio-fuels are going to be produced on large scale whether if they are harmful or not, there are many advantages of using renewable energy. The most important advantage is the fact that the earth will never run out of self replenished natural resources supplied by nature. From this point of view, the most important assignment for the specialists and scientists working in this field should be to find out how to hedge the negative aspects of using bio-fuels.