Conscious Money by Patricia Aburdene

Author:Patricia Aburdene
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Paperback

The Pros and Cons of Biofuel

In the face of growing concerns about oil prices, energy independence, and greenhouse gas emissions, biofuel has attracted more and more attention from both consumers and policymakers. The two most common biofuels are ethanol and biodiesel. These fuels differ in their sources and regional acceptance.

Ethanol fuel is an alcohol that is derived from corn, sugar cane, and other foodstuffs. The United States and Brazil generate 90 percent of global ethanol. 117 In the United States, ethanol is made from corn. Blended with standard gasoline, ethanol generally reduces tailpipe emissions. 118

In Brazil, where ethanol is derived from sugar cane, some cars run on pure ethanol. But ethanol fuel raises key issues. “Growing the crops, making fertilizers and pesticides, and processing the plants into fuel consumes a lot of energy,” states National Geographic, “so . . . there is debate about whether ethanol from corn actually provides more energy than is required to grow and process it.” 119

Another serious downside of corn-based ethanol is that it has caused already high food costs to soar (including products made with corn syrup for example), especially harming people in the developing world. But the next generation of ethanol, called cellulosic ethanol, is made from nonfood agricultural waste like cornstalks or crops like switchgrass, which would mitigate the widespread criticism of the fuel. 120

For this and other reasons, more Americans are investigating another biofuel.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.