Fuels derived from renewable resources, such as biomass and specifically cultivated fuel crops are currently being touted as a useful supplement and ultimate replacement for fossil fuels. The underlying principle in addition to their sustainability is that carbon dioxide produced when biofuels are burned in vehicles and heating systems is ultimately recycled by the very plants which absorb it from the atmosphere for their growth.
The net result, so proponents claim, would be a stabilisation of CO2 emissions as no such recycling effect is seen with fossil fuels. However, while many biofuels will reduce CO2 emissions in this way compared with fossil fuels, researchers suggest that biofuels derived from US corn, Brazilian soy and Malaysian palm oil may not be as green as the picture has been painted.
William Laurance
Writing in the 4th of January issue of the journal Science, William Laurance and postdoctoral colleague Jörn Scharlemann at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama, have highlighted a new study that factors in the total environmental costs of biofuel production. The data examined by Laurance and colleagues is part of a report commissioned by the Swiss government and authored by Rainer Zah and colleagues at EMPA Materials Science & Technology in Switzerland.
Laurance and Scharlemann are now urging governments to be far more selective about which biofuels they support, as some may actually do more harm than the fossil fuels they seek to supplant. Damage to human health and ecosystems due to the cultivation of vast areas given over to fuel crops and the fertiliser and harvesting fuel requirements of such crops must be added into the environmental equation the researchers believe.
Biofuel crop culture may not be 100% green (Credit: David Bradley)
The pair point out that the study falls short in not considering secondary consequences of biofuels, such as rising food costs, but affirm that it is a big step forward in allowing us to compare the environmental benefits and costs of dozens of different biofuels.
Different biofuels vary enormously in how eco-friendly they are,
explains Laurance, We need to be smart and promote the right biofuels, or we won’t be helping the environment much at all.
Further reading
Science, 2008, 319, No.5859, 43-44
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1153103
Zah study
http://www.lcm2007.org/presentation/Tu_2.07-Zah.pdf
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