The true cost of biofuels
Are corn ethanol and soy biodiesel more viable than fossil fuel based petrol and diesel? Well, yes, they are. A recent paper from the University of Minnesota establishes that ethanol yields 25% extra energy and biodiesel a whopping 93% extra throughout their life cycle. Biodiesel also releases a lot less nitrogen, phosphorous and pesticide pollutants than ethanol, making it our new vehicular drug of choice. Relative to fossil fuels, ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 12% and biodiesel reduces it by 41%. The bad news: if all the corn went over to ethanol it would meet only 12% of the US petrol demands, and if all soy went over to biodiesel it would meet only 6% of the US diesel demands. And then there wouldn't be any to eat. So we'd better get a lot more efficient about growing this stuff if we really hope to cure America's addiction to foreign oil. [GT]
Story page: Environmental, economic, and energetic costs and benefits of biodiesel and ethanol biofuels abstract | Full text in PDF
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I stumbled upon this site as I was doing some online research, and I'm glad I did. These statistics are amazing and are certainly dramatic enough that we should be looking into biofuels in the U.S. as an alternative to oil dependence.
Posted by: panasianbiz | July 18, 2006 10:16 PM