about biofuels
“Biofuel” refers to fuel from plant sources that can be substituted for petroleum products. In the US, “biofuel” basically refers to fuel ethanol, biodiesel and some biomass concoctions (P-series). In the Philippines, biofuels refer to fuel bioethanol and biodiesel.
Why Biofuels?
It used to be that fossil fuels were cheap and were thought of as being in limitless supply.
Since the Arab-Israeli War of 1973 and the oil crisis in its aftermath, continued political instability in the Middle East, dwindling oil supplies, and a continuing rise in demand for fossil fuels have driven up prices to unprecedented levels. Moreover, despite the implementation of stricter measures to lessen air pollution, environmental conservation advocates continue to issue warnings of a drastic increase in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the continual rise of global temperatures to warmer levels.
If present trends continue, the next fifty years will find us experiencing more acute shortages in fossil fuels even as we face the horrendous effects of a ravaged environment.
Confronted with these prospects, people around the world have begun turning to alternative energy sources that are cheaper to produce, in abundant supply, and pose an insignificant risk to the environment. Biofuels – plant-based substitutes for petroleum fuels – are among the many alternative energy sources that are in current and widespread use.
Biofuels include various types of alchohols, oils, gases, and solid fuels that are extracted from organic sources or recently living organisms. At present, biofuels are blended with fossil based fuels at a ratio of 1% for diesel and 5 to 20% percent for gasoline; however, car manufacturers have already begun development of vehicles that run solely on biofuels.
Less costly, practically inexhaustible, and clean, biofuels hold the potential of powering our lives through the next hundred years.
