In the fight against climate change, and the push to produce clean energy alternatives, governments around the world and leading scientific professionals have developed several solutions, but one aspect of climate change has taken center stage throughout the fight: Carbon emissions produced by vehicles. Vehicle emissions account for over 1/5th of the carbon emissions in the US alone, and it’s an even larger issue on the global scale. To combat this issue, the creation of efficient biofuels has become a primary goal for both scientists and government officials.
However, the results have varied up until now. We’ll be going over the way biofuels have impacted the fight against climate change, and how they’re finally becoming genuine alternatives to fossil fuels.
First-Gen Biofuels Produced Countless Issues
Like most ambitious endeavors, the initial push to create and implement effective biofuels produced unforeseen side-effects that damaged the reputation of biofuels in general.
First and foremost, global policy changes designed to increase the production of biofuels actually increased carbon emissions by nearly 300%. This was due to unintentional land-use changes that caused forests to be cleared to produce the materials needed to make bio-fuels. The forests that were clear-cut released their stored carbon, there were fewer trees to absorb naturally occurring carbon in the environment, and the heavy machinery necessary for such clear-cutting techniques were operated with fossil fuels.
Additionally, biofuel crops were far more profitable, and a large number of farmers repurposed their corn and palm oil crops to develop this new fuel material. Resulting in food shortages across South America and Southeast Asia. This caused the global hunger level to rise considerably over just 10 years.
Finally, the first generation of biofuels wasn’t designed to be used by themselves. The bio-fuel, in the form of ethanol, was added to traditional fossil fuels, continuing the creation of harmful emissions when these mixtures were burned.
Second-Gen Biofuels are a GameChanger
Second-generation biofuels stand a chance at changing the fight against climate change, and they’re a massive step forward in the green-tech industry.
The first generation of biofuels didn’t fail because it was poor technology. It failed because it was poorly thought out. Governments didn’t understand that the crops used to produce their government-supported biofuel crops were already food crops. Raw corn and other materials were used in whole, and this meant that those food crops weren’t available for their traditional usage.
The second generation of biofuels doesn’t do this. Due to the innovation in green-tech, biofuel producers can now use the waste from food crops to develop their fuels.
We’ll use corn as an example. With second-generation biofuels, the edible part of the corn plant is still used to feed locals or be exported to countries in need, and the husk, stalk, and other parts, which are usually discarded, are used to make the biofuel.
This solves every problem the previous generation of biofuels had, doesn’t require any new land to be cleared for extra crops, and makes use of byproducts that would otherwise contribute to global food waste statistics.
Headway Is being made
In many ways, the first generation of biofuels was a false alarm for those hoping to fight climate change and lower carbon emissions. Luckily, with time, a proactive approach, and a bit of human ingenuity, the second-generation biofuels are looking like a promising step in the right direction.
References
(www.dw.com), D. W. (n.d.). Biofuels: Good or bad for the environment?: DW: 25.06.2018. DW.COM. Retrieved September 26, 2021, from https://www.dw.com/en/biofuels-good-or-bad-for-the-environment/a-44354834.
Harish, J. ; Al., E. (2020, November 25). Environmental Sustainability of Biofuels: A Review. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. Retrieved September 26, 2021, from https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspa.2020.0351.
Second-generation biofuels. Second-Generation Biofuels – an overview | ScienceDirect Topics. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2021, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/second-generation-biofuels.
