Deforestation Diesel
Two Steps Forward One Step Back
As the population of the world increases, more cars are on the road and more and
more greenhouse gasses are pumped into the atmosphere. By 2050 many believe that the
effects of the pollution on our planet will be irreversible; the sky will have gone from a
deep blue to a smoggy backdrop to our cities. We are slowly killing our planet,
suffocating our rainforests, contaminating our oceans and poisoning ourselves. This is
most likely what will happen if we do nothing to change the type of energy we use. The
need for a new type of fuel has been growing since the gas shortages of the sixties, and
since then more and more people have been leaning towards bio-fuels as the solution.
But is bio-fuel the right solution compared to something like hydrogen, its only
byproduct water, or electricity with no byproducts? A growing number of people believe
bio-fuel is not the answer that we are looking for; the benefits do not outweigh the costs
to the environment or people. Even though bio-fuel isn’t the answer, it’s a step in the
right direction and “helping us to achieve the goals (however weak) of the Kyoto
Protocol.”(McNeely)
So What is Bio-Fuel Exactly?
Bio-fuel is oil that is pressed from vegetable or seeds. There are two different types of
bio-fuel: one is waste vegetable oil (WVO); this is done by refining the oil that comes out
of restaurant fryers, and this only produces limited amounts and can not be used for mass
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production of bio-fuel. The second way is by using SVO or straight vegetable oil which
is the oil pressed from certain vegetable and seeds; this is the way that mass amounts of
oil are produced. Either way they must both go through a process called
transesterification: “Transesterification is the reaction of oil with an alcohol to form
esters and glycerol, transesterification is the process of exchanging the alkoxy group of
an ester compound by another alcohol. The reactions are often catalyzed by an acid or a
base. Transesterification is crucial for producing biodiesel from biolipids” (“Bio-fuels
(alcohols and biodiesel) applications as fuels for internal combustion engines,” Avinash
Kumar Agarwal). This reaction makes the bio-fuel less viscous and easier to run in a
diesel. Before transesterification, the oil is too thick and will not atomize correctly. In an
unmodified diesel engine, this can cause a build up of carbon from the fuel which is bad
for the engine. This process also helps keep the rest of the engine clean; it keeps the
valves from developing a gum and ruining the injection timing which would make the
engine misfire, not start well in the cold, cause the engine to knock, and eventually cause
engine failure due to lack of lubrication oil. After transesterification it can run in an
unmodified diesel engine.
All in Favor
One of the big drawbacks to petroleum fuels besides the pollution is that they are not
renewable.
The reserves – known and affordable supplies of a nonrenewable resource such
as oil – are considered economically depleted when 80% of the supply has been
used; the remaining 20% is considered too expensive to extract. Oil’s fatal flaw
is that its reserves may be 80% depleted within 35–84 years, depending on how
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rapidly it is used. At the current rate of consumption, global oil reserves will last
at least 44 years. Undiscovered oil that is thought to exist might last another 20–40
years. Instead of remaining at the current level, however, global oil consumption is
projected to increase by about 25% by 2010. This will hasten depletion of global
oil reserves. (Puppan)
But since bio-fuel is a plant product, it can be renewed just as fast as the crop can
grow. Unlike the dwindling supply of petroleum in the world, as many crops could be
grown as needed to supply enough oil. Instead of using what has taken millions of years
to form, fuel can now be reproduced within a year. The plants that grow the fuels serve a
purpose; these plants absorb CO2, and possibly even enough to offset the CO2 produced
by burning the bio-fuel. This makes bio-fuel a CO2 neutral source which is a far leap
from today’s CO2 emitting fuels. Daniel Puppan talks about how bio-fuel will have a
tremendous benefit on the environment within the next 50 years in his essay
“Environmental Evaluation of Bio-Fuels.” Although there are a few drawbacks to biofuel which he clearly points out in his essay, in his opinion the benefits of bio-diesel and
ethanol seem to make up for their drawbacks. Puppan talks about how carbon can be
reabsorbed by the growing crops in his essay “The life-cycle assessment of bio-diesel and
ethanol has proved that their impact on the environment during the entire life-cycle is
much more favorable than those of the conventional fuels (diesel, gasoline), provided
the agricultural, climate conditions are advantageous.”
Bio-fuel would also have an economic benefit. An article by The Globalist
discusses the possibility of turning usually impoverished countries into tomorrow’s oil
brokers: “Of the world's 47 poorest countries — 38 are net oil importers and 25 of these
import all of their oil. Yet many of these countries have substantial agricultural bases and
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are well-positioned to grow highly productive energy crops.” This would create more
jobs for the world’s poorest people and create a greater export market for these countries,
creating greater revenue. “Between 1975 and 1987, ethanol, a plant fuel product, saved
Brazil $10.4 Billion in foreign exchange.”(The Globalist) These economic benefits
would also help boost the global economy, making everyone better off.
The Hidden Truths
As great as all of the above sounds, there are many things that the bio-fuel industries
don’t want people knowing, just like the petroleum industries try to keep their blemishes
a secret. Let’s start with the obvious: since it is more viscous then traditional diesel it
does not atomize (when fuel is injected into the cylinders it spreads out in to a very fine
vapor so that it burns more completely) as well in the engine. This makes the engine less
efficient “only getting about 70% of the mileage of petrol. And the cut in CO2 is only
about 13% due to the pollution created in production” (McNeely). So much more fuel is
required to go as far and keep the same amount of horsepower as petroleum engines.
SVO is what is used to create mass amounts of bio-fuel, but where do you grow these
types of plants? The plants that produce most of the world’s bio-oils are only grown in
tropical regions near the equator. The problem is in this region there is not much
agricultural land at all, so to make room for the plantations, forests are being slashed and
burned:
…A miasma of choking haze has sent pollution readings off the chart and health
authorities are warning of much worse to come As in years past, the foul air is the
direct result of raging forest fires across the waters in Indonesia’s Sumatra region.
As villagers and farmers clear land for logging and the export of tropical timber
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and planting of a variety of agricultural products… Indonesia’s slash and burn
wave owes much to the soaring demand for environmentally friendly bio-fuels
(Shameen Assif “Southeast Asia’s Clean Air Conundrum”).
Even though the plants that grow the bio-crops offset the CO2 produced by the burning
of the CO2, the amount that is created from the burning of the forests is rivaling that of
petroleum in production of greenhouse gasses.
Bio-fuel is not as economically friendly as some make it out to be. “The amount of
grains it takes to fill a Range Rover is sufficient to feed one person for a year. Assuming
that the tank is refilled every two weeks one car can use enough grain to feed a hungry
African village for a year” (McNeely). That doesn’t sound very efficient to me, and with
the rising costs of food all around the world that could make bio-fuel very expensive.
Even if countries imposed taxes on bio-fuels the cost would end up being so high that no
one would ever be able to afford enough to run a vehicle. Not to mention that if one car
took this much grain to fuel it, if every car on the planet was eventually switched over
then the entire world’s rainforests would be wiped out for the production of a product that
is supposed to be environmentally friendly.
Alternatives to the Alternative
More and more options for fuel are becoming available every day; things like
hydrogen and even talk of a pure air fueled vehicles has risen in that past few years. But
if not bio-fuel which one of these could be that answer that we are looking for? Each one
of these is cleaner to produce than bio-fuel. Hydrogen is just extracted from water; it can
be created using electricity not fossil fuels. In cars it is possibly 2 to 3 times more
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efficient than today’s fuels. So why not? Well as easy as the production of hydrogen
sounds, it is extremely expensive and time consuming. At this time producing mass
amounts of hydrogen would take too long and we would go through periods of abundance
and absolute scarcity. Until technology is able to give us a cheaper and quicker means of
production then we probably should keep looking.
Air, it is all around us, we need it to survive, to fuel us. It was only a matter of time
before someone thought up a way to power a car just using air. Modern cars already use
air in their engines; so would bio-fuel cars. In order to combust the fuel you need to
combine it with air. The idea behind an air powered car is mostly compression. A
manufacturer in France has been developing a car that uses compressed air to turn a
piston and drive the wheels. Great steps are being made to try to make a more efficient
model. The model in use now only has a top speed of ~95 k.m.h or roughly 60 miles per
hour, and can run for around 100 miles with our refueling. Refueling would be a snap,
just plug your car into an air pump that you would usually use to pump up your tires and
your car would be ready to go. With no burning of anything in this engine it is
completely emissions free; after the air turns the piston it is just expelled from the car.
As soon as a longer lasting version of this air engine is available we will most likely start
to see them on the streets.
So what now, do we stick with the petroleum engine till we run out or can’t walk in
the streets without a gas mask? It would make more sense for the oil companies to take
some of their billions of dollars and invest it in research and development of future fuels.
This is obviously where they will make more money in the future when we can no longer
burn fossil fuels.
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Conclusion
The benefits of bio-fuel do not seem to me to be enough to make up for its
shortcomings. It seems paradoxical to use a cleaner burning fuel that pollutes more
petroleum before it is even burned. Not to mention, “it’s technology gone mad,” but at
least people are starting to look in the right direction (S.M. Idris qutd. in Shameen).
Many companies are realizing that bio-fuel at this time is not feasible; they are trying to
alter the plants to make them more efficient to try to make up for the burning of the
forests. But until these modifications are made and tested we are not doing the right
thing in terms of environmental protection. There are many other options and we need to
start exploring them to find the best possible answer. Electricity has been used to power
cars for a few decades now and great advancements have made electric cars much more
powerful. Along with hydrogen and air we may have found a few different answers, and
perhaps someday in the not too distant future we won’t hear the loud rumble of a gasoline
powered cars, just the quiet clean hum of electric cars passing silent hydrogen cars under
a pristine blue haze-less sky.
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Works Cited
Agarwal, Avinash Kumar. "Bio-fuels (Alcohol and Bio-diesel) Applications as Fuel for
Internal Combustion Engine." Science Direct 33. 311 2006 233-271. 3 27 2007
<http://www.sciencedirect.com>
The Globalist, "The Global Benefits of Biofuels." The Globalist
. 15 06 2006. The Globalist. 09 04 2007<www.theglobalist.com/
storyid.aspx?StoryId=5409 >.
McNeely, Jeffery A. "Biofuels: Green Energy or Grim Reaper.
" Science/Nature The Green Room. 22 09 2006. BBC News . 09 04 2007
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5369284.stm>.
Puppan, Daniel. “Environmental Evaluation of Bio-fuel.” Periodica Polytichnica. 9 2002
10. 3 27 2007<http://www.pp.bme.hu/so/2002_1/pdf/so2002_1_08.pdf>
Shameen, Assif. “Southeast Asia’s Clean Air Conundrum.” Business Week Online.
10 2006 2. 3 27 2007<http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/cot20
06/gb20061017_901240.htm?chan=search>
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