{"id":5251,"date":"2015-02-03T05:49:40","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T19:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.privatefleet.com.au\/?p=5251"},"modified":"2020-06-20T01:14:02","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T15:14:02","slug":"the-biofuel-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/fuel-2\/the-biofuel-dilemma\/","title":{"rendered":"The Biofuel Dilemma"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DieselFuel_195121818\"<\/a>The push for more sustainable sources of energy for our cars is intensifying.\u00a0 Biodiesel and ethanol are getting more and more common.\u00a0 Slurping through large amounts of fossil fuel is considered irresponsible, as is belching out a lot of greenhouse gases.\u00a0 In this sort of climate (both the metaphorical climate of opinion and the actual one, which is supposed to be changing), biofuels are looking like a very sexy option.<\/p>\n

However, there is a bit of a problem when it comes to biofuels.\u00a0 You see, while it seems like a great idea to grow a crop that can be turned into fuel, there are a few snags.\u00a0 All commercially grown crops take up land, and they require nutrients and water.\u00a0 This means that they\u2019re competing with other crops \u2013 like the ones that you and I eat.\u00a0 And this is where the problem lies: if we\u2019re going to do away with world hunger, the people who are currently starving are going to have to eat something.\u00a0 And that something will have to grow somewhere.<\/p>\n

They tell us that it\u2019s going to become more difficult to find enough land and other resources to feed the world.\u00a0 This means that even if biofuels don\u2019t increase, there\u2019s going to be issues with growing enough food to feed us all.\u00a0 On the one hand, we want to get from A to B more sustainably.\u00a0 On the other hand, we don\u2019t want people to die from malnutrition.\u00a0 So what\u2019s the answer?\u00a0 Biofuel or not biofuel?\u00a0 Should corn go to feeding people or to making oil to power vehicles?\u00a0 (Let\u2019s not even start on the feeding people versus feeding cattle debate.)\u00a0 Which is the best option for the thinking person who cares for the planet and other human beings?<\/p>\n

The answer is to keep on thinking and to look at the wider issue.\u00a0 First of all, the food problem.\u00a0 It might not be as difficult to produce enough food to feed everybody on the planet as you think.\u00a0 For a start off, a large chunk of us (especially in the Western world) could probably eat less and be better off for it.\u00a0 Secondly, an awful lot of the food grown in the world today ends up going to waste.\u00a0 Some is damaged by pests and rotten weather while it\u2019s in the field.\u00a0 Some doesn\u2019t make it onto the market courtesy of bureaucracy, food regulations and other rhubarb like that \u2013 things like the European Union\u2019s standards that state the colour, shape and size of vegetables that are permitted on the market, even though wonky carrots and cucumbers with more than a certain amount of curvature.\u00a0 A lot of perfectly edible gets dumped along the food pathway \u2013 things that are still good but are past their sell-by date, for example.\u00a0 Thirdly, we can all have a go at growing our own fruit and veg. We can feed a hungry world, people, if we really try!<\/p>\n

One has to wonder why all this dumped and wasted food doesn\u2019t end up being turned into biofuels.\u00a0 It certainly is possible.\u00a0 One wonders why this hasn\u2019t been tried yet.\u00a0 Which brings me neatly to the next part of tackling the food vs biofuel dilemma.\u00a0 Often, biofuels such as ethanol can be made from waste products of the food industry.\u00a0 Take sugarcane \u2013 which is where most of Australia\u2019s ethanol comes from.\u00a0 The juice gets extracted and taken to the refinery to be turned into what goes into our morning coffee, plus other goodies such as golden syrup and molasses (used as a dietary supplement for dairy cows).\u00a0 The leftover bits of cane are broken down to make ethanol.\u00a0 The only snag here is that the leftovers are often quite woody, which means that it\u2019s harder to break down and turn into ethanol.\u00a0 In the world of biofuels, finding bacteria that are capable of breaking down tough woody stuff is a very hot topic. We might snigger at research papers that rave about the potential of some bacteria strain found in panda poop (actual example) but these bacteria might be the best way of turning, say, sawdust into what you put in your Toyota Corolla<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The third option for solving the dilemma is to find sources of biofuel that don\u2019t compete with food crops for resources.\u00a0 Things that grow on bad soil or on bad water are particularly popular.\u00a0 This is where things like jatropha comes in.\u00a0 Jatropha grows like a weed on bad soil\u2026 and it produces oil-bearing seeds that make great biodiesel.\u00a0 To give you an idea of how well it can grow on marginal land, a close relative of the species that produces the best oil has been banned in Western Australia as an invasive weed.\u00a0 The other biggie is algae.\u00a0 Algae can be grown on sewage (something we\u2019re not exactly going to run out of) and some strains produce a good dollop of oil that can be turned into biodiesel.\u00a0 The hunt is on to find the best types of algae that produce the most bang for the buck.\u00a0 Again, it doesn\u2019t pay to snigger about research papers that rave about things that grow on sewage.<\/p>\n

\"Algae<\/a><\/p>\n

So what is the average Aussie driver to do in the attempt to \u201cthink globally and act locally\u201d when it comes to the biofuel dilemma?<\/p>\n