Biofuel
Biofuel is a fuel source derived from recently living organisms (biomass) like corn, manure or wood. This fuel source must consist of an 80 percent minimum volume of materials derived from biomass harvested within 10 years preceding its manufacture. Unlike coal or nuclear fuels, biofuel is a renewable source of energy. And because biofuels are biodegradeable they pose no threat to the environment if spilled.
Biofuels are generally categorized into three categories: alcohols, gases and solids.
• Alcohols (including ethanol, methanol, propanal, and butanol) are prodcued by fermentation. Ethanol is perhaps the best known of these alcohols. Besides comprising the prime and "potent" ingredient in your cocktail, ethanol is also used to fuel cars! The Brazilians use sugar cane to produce fuel for their autos while Americans perfer to ferment corn. Moonshine for your car seems to shed new meaning on the term "white lighting."
• Gases are produced as certain organic materials decompose. This "biogas" can then be burned. That landfill stink is a biogas called methane, in scientific circles. Methane is one of the greehouse gases that contributes to global warming.
• Solids include your basic, run-of-the-mill, fuels. Wood, charcoal and even dried excrement are good examples.
Lots of people use biofuel. Between 2000 and 2005 ethanol production jumped 19 percent (36.5 billion liters in 2005). The United States and Brazil (the world's largest producers of ethanol) have domnated the market since the 1980s. Europe prefers biodiesel (a derivation of plant oils). Biofuel production is becoming so widespread that its beginning to affect world food prices. Brazil has increasingly allocated its sugarcane crops to ethanol production resulting in doubled world sugar prices. In the United States, food prices have jumped an average of $47 per person since July 2006, due to the ethanol craze, according to an Iowa State University study from May 2007. In total, ethanol has cost Americans about $14 billion in higher food prices. And in America, replacing just one-eighth of gasoline consumption with ethanol would require the entire U.S. corn crop. President Bush has set a goal of producing 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2017 -- twice the current level.
Sources:
• "Biofuel."Wikipedia Encylopedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofuels
• "Biofuels Hit a Gusher." Vital Signs 2006-2007.New York: W.W. Norton and Company. 2006.
• "Corn-Fed Cars." Sierra Magazine, January/February 2007, p. 42-43. http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200701/decoder.asp
• "Ethanol."Columbia Encyclopdedia. http://reference.aol.com/columbia/_a/ethanol/20051206004909990019
• Wasik, John F. "Forget the Ethanol Myth: Avoid Biofuel Bubble." Bloomberg.com, accessed July 24, 2007. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_wasik&sid=aOS8e5kvDESE
