Alternative Energy of Conventional Fuel
Oil price has been sharply going up recently, and it’s one of the
significant global issues today. In fact, this oil issue is affecting our daily
lives. For example, gasoline price has been increasing, and it’s affecting
people’s to damage household budgets. We have to reconsider the oil age. Oil
is limited natural resources, and we are urged to find the alternative sources
of energy. Yet, it seems to be difficult to find alternative sources of energy as
beneficial conventional oil. Santa-Barbara states that conventional oil that
“has such high energy content and is relatively easy to extract from the
ground. In addition, oil is easily transported at ambient temperatures, and is
relatively safe to handle. It also has many other uses besides producing
energy, plastics, pesticides and fertilizers, and pharmaceuticals.” He argues
in his report that there is no alternative to conventional oil in term of net
energy, however, “biofuels may play a role in a sustainable energy future, but
their low net energy is only one of their drawbacks”. Some countries are
attempting to raise the production of biofuels, for example, “bioethanol from
cornstarch (in the United States) and sugarcane (in Brazil) or biodiesel from
rapeseed oil (in Europe).
(Caesar)
Whether biofuels can replace conventional fuel is still unclear, but
many investors and companies are banking on them for making big profits in
the near future. Biofules are supposed to help meet the world’s energy needs
while lowering greenhouse gas emissions (Caesar). Actually, some countries
used to produce biofuels domestic use until several years ago.
Currently, Brazil’s industries are expected to become one of the most
profitable and efficient producer of biofuels in the world. Biofuels are made
from sugarcanes and sufficient land is necessary to produce ethanol. Brazil’s
sugarcanes have a lower price than other countries so far, and can thus
produce biofuels with low costs. According to Assis, Elstrodt and Silva’s
report, “Annual worldwide ethanol exports now total 6.5 billion liters (about
1.7 billion gallons), but by 2020 they could reach 50 billion to zoo billion liters.
Let’s say that Brazil will provide 160 billion liters in 2020”, and “present
Brazil’s annual ethanol output is nearly 17 billion liters, roughly 14 billion of
them consumed domestically.” Brazil is expected to produce sufficient
quantity of biofuels to meet the demand of other countries in the future, and
if so, we may be able to obtain them with lower price. Yet, to become a main
producer in the world, Brazil has to invest in land, mills and distribution
infrastructure to increase its production (Assis). According to Assis’s report,
currently, Brazil has 6 million hectares of sugarcane, but to produce 160
billion litters ethanol by 2020, Brazil has to increase to 11 million hectares.
Also, 350 mills process 460 million tons of sugarcane annually, half for
ethanol, and estimates under new technology that 600 new mills are needed.
As for distribution infrastructure, to transport ethanol, Brazil will need
additional 1,000 to 2,000 kilometers of pipelines and railways, and 10 billion
litters of additional storage capacity. It’s estimated to take the total cost of
100 billion or more dollars for these investments, land, mills and distribution
infrastructure.
The United States is also supposed to be suitable for producing
biofuels because of the rich harvest of corn. The demand for ethanol has been
rising as the price of oil has gone up, and the amount of America’s corn for
ethanol is climbing steadily.
From2003 to 2006, the percentage of the total US corn harvest used to
produce biofuels rose to 16 percent, from 12 percent. But now that the
federal government has adopted a goal of 35 billion gallons of alternative
fuels a year by 2017, the use of domestic corn based bioethanol to meet even
half of this target would require 40 percent of that year’s expected harvest.
(Caesar)
Government regulation has been changing with the rise in demand of
ethanol. Caesar also says that to guarantee producers a certain level of sales,
U.S. regulators could set any ethanol blend rate from 10 percent (the
maximum suitable for current vehicles) to 85 percent (the maximum suitable
for most flex-fuel vehicles). It’s also
assumed that this high blend rate
regulation will impact on car companies because of the increase of demand of
flex-fuel vehicles.
As a technology develops, the production cost of biofuels is expected
to be reduced. Also, Biofuels’ feedstocks are vegetation, and consumption of
large number of feedstocks for biofuels results in price increase of crops in
the market. In some countries, corn oil price has already been going up
because of the consumption for bioethanol. Yet, Caesar assumed that new
technology may reduce the consumption.
Next-generation technology will allow producers to use the sugars that
make up cellulose (the main structural component of plants). Cellulose is
found in all manner of vegetation, so cheap feedstocks—such as corn stover,
sugarcane stalks (bagasse), and high-yield “enegy crops” like swith-grass,
energy cane (a relative of sugar cane), and wood—will become important
fesedstocks.
In the future, if a new technology can use waste such as corn stover, for
feedstocks, the price of corn in the market will remain cheap despite its
demand in both the food and biofuel industries. The effects biofuels can
produce with low cost may result in both preventing global warming and
popularizing the biofuel in every part of the society.
Nowadays, a lot of issues, such as global warming, exhaustion of
natural resources like oil, and unstable economies threaten our lives. We,
however, have to confront those problems, and find how to resolve them one
by one. As all the countries unite for the same goal, we, as human beings, can
obtain true peace of man kind.
Work Citation
Assis, Vicente. “Positioning Brazil for Biofuels Success.” McKinsey Quarterly, 2007
Special ed.: 116-118. Business Source Premier. EBSCOHost. LaGuardia
Community
Coll.
Lib.,
Long
Island
City,
NY.
15
July
2008
<
http://web.ebscohost.com>
Caesar, William K. “Betting on Biofuels.” Mckinsey Quartely. 2007 Issue 2: 52-63.
Business Source Premier. EBSCOHost. LaGuardia Community Coll. Lib., Long
Island City, NY. 15 July 2008 < http://web.ebscohost.com>
Santa-Barbara, Jack. “Peak Oil and Alternative Energy.” Canadian Dimension. July/
Aug 2006, Vol. 40 Issue 4: 23-25. Academic Search Premier. EBSCHost.
LaGuardia Community Coll. Lib., Long Island City, NY. 15 July 2008 <
http://web.ebscohost.com>