Biofuels : Limitations

Limiting the limitations!!

· Food v/s fuel controversy

Every good work is followed by quibbles. It has been argued that the agricultural production is more focussed on large scale bio fuel production and getting away from food crops. Water and large areas of land are needed to grow bio fuel crops. A judicious thinking is demanded in such context. The main reason due to which thousands of people are starving is not at all bio fuel. Inflation and unjust economic system rather than shortage of food is making people starve. Moreover, the recent researches are focussed upon deriving bio fuel from non food crops, microbes, algae etc. The new generations of bio fuel are dealing with the issue and there will be no dependence on crops for bio fuel production.

· Dealing the green house emissions

It is being questioned that “Are bio fuels really eco-friendly? Bio fuels are considered as carbon neutral, i.e. the amount of carbon dioxide released while burning them is equal to carbon dioxide absorption levels of plants and hence no extra carbon dioxide remains in atmosphere. Irrespective of this fact, the emissions associated with bio fuels production cannot be ignored. To deal this again we need to rely on the developing technologies that promise cleaner and more efficient solutions.

For a better tomorrow, let’s stop criticising and positively handle the problems and controversies. Bio fuel cannot create miracle overnight. At present, it cannot replace petroleum fuels completely. There are many practical limitations to be dealt with. We need to encourage the potential of renewable energy sources and at the same time conserve the non renewable sources that are limited.

Bio fuel: Technology Tomorrow!!

The Office of energy efficiency, US envision cellulosic bio fuel to be price competitive by 2012 and bio based aviation fuels by 2017. The industry has still a long way to go. Presently 90% of the production is concentrated in United States, Brazil and

Europe only. Brazilian government is encouraging the production and use of bio fuel by promoting the availability of ethanol at gasoline stations, and manufacture of flexible fuel cars. The prospects for global bio fuels will depend on various inter related factors like availability of low cost feed stocks, land availability, technological breakthroughs. Anticipating the success of next generation bio fuels, we’ll be able to get between one third and half of all transportation fuel from bio fuel. Presently, transportation industry is the main direct consumer for bio fuels and indirectly it serves even more, including agricultural equipments, excavation and mining companies and so forth which use bio diesel. There are many uncertainties associated with the future of bio fuels including the need to reduce the tract used for its production. However, the developing, next generation bio fuels derived from algae, microbes and non food crops seem promising in terms of dealing with the ongoing controversies, ensuring profitable production along with maintaining the delicate ecological balance.

Certainly, a cleaner and greener tomorrow awaits us!!