Automobile Use and Biofuels

Posted by Laurence O'Sullivan Oct 16, 2008

When assigning blame for climate change is concerned, one item above all the rest stands out as a culprit – the automobile. This one piece of technology, which has brought personal freedom and wealth to people all over the planet, has a huge environmental impact. At the present time it is virtually 100% dependent on fossil fuels and therefore a main contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

Renewable sources of alternative energy such as wind, hydro and solar are not much good in relation to powering autos. The numbers of electric run cars are negligible in comparison to the total number of cars in the world. The only alternative source of energy that offers some hope of supplanting fossil fuels at the moment are the so called “biofuels”, such as ethanol and biodiesel.

Simply put, carbon emitted by the combustion of biofuels would be offset by the carbon absorbed from the atmosphere in the growth of the plants that produced the biofuels. Most modern cars can take some ethanol in their fuel mixture and all diesel autos can run on either petroleum diesel or biodiesel.

That was the theory, but the practice is working out differently. A report from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, published in Paris on October 7 says that the western world needs to rethink its position of biofuel production. It goes on to say that the switch to growing crops for fuel instead of food has pushed up world food prices while having little effect on carbon dioxide levels.

In the absence of any alternative source of fuel, biofuels will have to continue to play a large role in weaning the world off fossil fuels, but the problems associated with biofuels will have to be solved.