Issues relating to biofuel are social, economic, environmental and technical problems that may arise from biofuel production and use. Social and economic issues include the "food vs fuel" debate and the need to develop responsible policies and economic instruments to ensure sustainable biofuel production. Farming for biofuels feedstock can be detrimental to the environment if not done sustainably. Environmental concerns include deforestation, biodiversity loss and soil erosion as a result of land clearing for biofuels agriculture. While biofuels can contribute to reduction in global carbon emissions, indirect land use change for biofuel production can have the inverse effect. Technical issues include possible modifications necessary to run the engine on biofuel, as well as energy balance and efficiency.
The International Resource Panel outlined the wider and interrelated factors that need to be considered when deciding on the relative merits of pursuing one biofuel over another.Towards sustainable production and use of resources: Assessing Biofuels , 2009, International Resource Panel, United Nations Environment Programme The IRP concluded that not all biofuels perform equally in terms of their effect on climate, energy security and ecosystems, and suggested that environmental and social effects need to be assessed throughout the entire life-cycle.
Social and economic effects
Oil price moderation The International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook 2006 concludes that rising oil demand, if left unchecked, would accentuate the consuming countries' vulnerability to a severe supply disruption and resulting price shock. The report suggested that biofuels may one day offer a viable alternative, but also that "the implications of the use of biofuels for global security as well as for economic, environmental, and public health need to be further evaluated".
According to Francisco Blanch, a commodity strategist for Merrill Lynch, crude oil would be trading 15 per cent higher and gasoline would be as much as 25 per cent more expensive, if it were not for biofuels. Gordon Quaiattini, president of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, argued that a healthy supply of alternative energy sources will help to combat gasoline price spikes.
"Food vs. fuel" debate
Food vs fuel is the debate regarding the risk of diverting farmland or crops for biofuels production in detriment of the food supply on a global scale. Essentially the debate refers to the possibility that by farmers increasing their production of these crops, often through government subsidy incentives, their time and land is shifted away from other types of non-biofuel crops driving up the price of non-biofuel crops due to the decrease in production.The Impact of US Biofuel Policies on Agricultural Price Levels and Volatility , By Bruce A. Babcock, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, Iowa State University, for ICTSD, Issue Paper No. 35. June 2011. Therefore, it is not only that there is an increase in demand for the food staples, like corn and cassava, that sustain the majority of the world's poor but this also has the potential to increase the price of the remaining crops that these individuals would otherwise need to utilize to supplement their diets. A recent study for the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development shows that market-driven expansion of ethanol in the US increased maize prices by 21 percent in 2009, in comparison with what prices would have been had ethanol production been frozen at 2004 levels. A November 2011 study states that biofuels, their production, and their subsidies are leading causes of agricultural price shocks."Even the U.N. Hates Ethanol." Wall Street Journal, 14 June 2011, A14. The counter-argument includes considerations of the type of corn that is utilized in biofuels, often field corn not suitable for human consumption; the portion of the corn that is used in ethanol, the starch portion; and the negative effect higher prices for corn and grains have on government welfare for these products. The "food vs. fuel" or "food or fuel" debate is internationally controversial, with disagreement about how significant this is, what is causing it, what the effect is, and what can or should be done about it. The world is facing three global crises, energy, food and environment. Changing the trend of recreation or population growth can impact each one of these. By increasing the world population, the ratio of energy and food demands will increase as well. So, it can put these two energy and food industries in completion of supplying. Developing the techniques and utilizing the food crops for biofuel production, especially in shortage areas, can adverse the competition between the food and biofuel industries. It can be cay that harvesting and producing biofuels crop on a large scale can put local food communities at risk, such as challenges to access lands and portions of the food. If the food economy cannot place safe and stable, protocols such as Kyoto can not meet their purposes and help control emissions.
Poverty reduction Researchers at the Overseas Development Institute have argued that biofuels could help to reduce poverty in the developing world, through increased employment, wider economic growth multipliers and by stabilising oil prices (many developing countries are net importers of oil).Leturque, Henri and Wiggins, Steve (2009) Biofuels: Could the South benefit? London: Overseas Development Institute However, this potential is described as 'fragile', and is reduced where feedstock production tends to be large scale, or causes pressure on limited agricultural resources: capital investment, land, water, and the net cost of food for the poor.
With regards to the potential for poverty reduction or exacerbation, biofuels rely on many of the same policy, regulatory or investment shortcomings that impede agriculture as a route to poverty reduction. Since many of these shortcomings require policy improvements at a country level rather than a global one, they argue for a country-by-country analysis of the potential poverty effects of biofuels. This would consider, among other things, land administration systems, market coordination and prioritizing investment in biodiesel, as this 'generates more labour, has lower transportation costs and uses simpler technology'.Biofuels, Agriculture and Poverty Reduction Overseas Development Institute Also necessary are reductions in the tariffs on biofuel imports regardless of the country of origin, especially due to the increased efficiency of biofuel production in countries such as Brazil.
Sustainable biofuel production
Responsible policies and economic instruments would help to ensure that biofuel commercialization, including the development of new cellulosic technologies, is sustainable. Responsible commercialization of biofuels represents an opportunity to enhance sustainable economic prospects in Africa, Latin America and impoverished Asia.
Environmental effects
Soil erosion and deforestation Large-scale deforestation of mature trees (which help remove CO2 through photosynthesis — much better than sugar cane or most other biofuel feedstock crops do) contributes to soil erosion, un-sustainable global warming atmospheric greenhouse gas levels, loss of habitat, and a reduction of valuable biodiversity (both on land as in oceans).Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich, Extinction, Random House, New York (1981) Demand for biofuel has led to clearing land for palm oil plantations. In Indonesia alone, over of forest have been converted to plantations since 1996.
A portion of the biomass should be retained onsite to support the soil resource. Normally this will be in the form of raw biomass, but processed biomass is also an option. If the exported biomass is used to produce syngas, the process can be used to co-produce biochar, a low-temperature charcoal used as a soil amendment to increase soil organic matter to a degree not practical with less recalcitrant forms of organic carbon. For co-production of biochar to be widely adopted, the soil amendment and carbon sequestration value of co-produced charcoal must exceed its net value as a source of energy. "Prehistorically modified soils of central Amazonia: a model for sustainable agriculture in the twenty-first century", by Bruno Glaser at the Institute of Soil Science and Soil Geography, University of Bayreuth (see the "Terra Preta Web Site" ). Extract available here . Published online December 20, 2006 in Philosophic Transactions Royal Society B (2007) 362, 187–196. . 1978. This article studies the evidences concerning the process of generation of Terra preta as well as the reasons why its organic matter's and nutrients' retention is so superior to the surrounding soils.
Some commentators claim that removal of additional cellulosic biomass for biofuel production will further deplete soils. "Peak Soil: Why cellulosic ethanol, biofuels are unsustainable and a threat to America", by Alice Friedemann, April 2007.
Effect on water resources
Increased use of biofuels puts increasing pressure on water resources in at least two ways: water use for the irrigation of crops used as feedstocks for biodiesel production; and water use in the production of biofuels in refineries, mostly for boiling and cooling.
In many parts of the world supplemental or full irrigation is needed to grow feedstocks. For example, if in the production of corn (maize) half the water needs of crops are met through irrigation and the other half through rainfall, about 860 liters of water are needed to produce one liter of ethanol.To calculate this relationship, one has to take into account that irrigated corn needs about 560 cubic meters (2.1m gallons) of water per ton of corn (as quoted in Eco-World. Ed Ring:Is bio-fuel water positive? June 4, 2007 using estimates from the University of Colorado and UNESCO, as well as a clarification by David Nielsen, Research Agronomist, USDA-ARS, Akron, Colorado, posted on July 19, 2007.) A good ethanol yield is about 480 gallons per acre per year, and a typical corn yield is 5.6 tons per acre per year. Assuming that half the crop water needs can be met through rainfall, this would mean that still 1,570 cubic meter (1.57m liter) - 280 cubic meter of water per ton, multiplied by 5.6 tons per acre - of irrigation water are needed per acre per year to produce 1,817 liter (480 gallons) of ethanol. However, in the United States only 5-15% of the water required for corn comes from irrigation while the other 85-95% comes from natural rainfall.
In the United States, the number of ethanol factories has almost tripled from 50 in 2000 to about 140 in 2008. A further 60 or so are under construction, and many more are planned. Projects are being challenged by residents at courts in Missouri (where water is drawn from the Ozark Aquifer), Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas (all of which draw water from the non-renewable Ogallala Aquifer), central Illinois (where water is drawn from the Mahomet Aquifer) and Minnesota.The Economist, March 1, 2008, Ethanol and water: don't mix, p. 36
For example, the four ethanol crops: corn, sugarcane, sweet sorghum and pine yield net energy. However, increasing production in order to meet the U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act mandates for renewable fuels by 2022 would take a heavy toll in the states of Florida and Georgia. The sweet sorghum, which performed the best of the four, would increase the amount of freshwater withdrawals from the two states by almost 25%.Barnett, Cynthia. "Fueling worries: four ethanol crops under consideration in Florida are very thirsty.(NATURAL RESOURCES)." Florida Trend 52.4 (July 2009): 18(1). General OneFile. Gale. BENTLEY UPPER SCHOOL LIBRARY (BAISL). 6 Oct. 2009 http://find.galegroup.com/gps/start.do?prodId=IPS
Pollution