Magazine / April, 2013 9
ALTERNATIVE OIL
Celluosic ethanol.
Plant materials, wood corn soy are renewable energy sources but not sustainable. Plants like crop and forest residues, corn kernels stalks, energy crops, perennial grasses are used to make liquid biofuels to serve as an alternative to oil to produce heat or electricity. Biomass can be produced to reduce pollution but may also increase it. I can help to clean up the air, water and soil; however it can also degrade the lands, forest and water, threaten biodiversity. Biomass is not sustainable and needs to be produced in a way that will reduce global warming and protect the environment. Biomass needs to do a better job than a fossil fuel; however it is currently just a replacement to fossil fuels.
How it works.
Plants capture and stores the sun’s energy through growth, the energy comes from crops, agricultural leftovers, and trees. However the sources of the biomass is problematic and researcher are developing ways to produce energy from special, fast growing, higher yielding crops. Plant material is treated in different ways to produce energy and fuel. They are burned in power plants to produce heat and electricity, and produce fewer harmful emissions than coal. They are fermented to produce fuels like ethanol in cars, they are digested by bacteria to create methane gas to power turbines. They are heated or “gasified” to break down into a mix of gases that can be burned for electricity and used to make products.
Environmental impacts.
Biomass energy is unsustainable because the sources are not an improvement of fossil fuels, instead is a replacement or different way of creating the same products. The ethanol is created as the final product but through a different way, of fermenting crops which requires large amounts of land, water and chemical to grow. This increases global warming and threatens forests because whole trees are needed to be equivalent to burning coal.
Economic and environmental consequences can result from focusing on food crops like corn and soy bean as biofuel, harvesting these crops will increase the price of feed for livestock and food in general. These crops are mainly used as fertilizer, land, and water quality however if these sources are used up, availability can cause the soil erosion, pollution and fertilizer run off. The production of corn ethanol creates more carbon pollution than the original oil.
Wood is a problematic source to use because it is not harvest in sustainable ways, demands for wood pellets increase and whole trees are deforested for usage. This threatens the environment and whole ecosystems. Burning whole trees releases stored carbon and takes away the trees ability to absorb more carbon. This increase carbon pollution and degrade forests which is a defense against global warming.
Advantages.
o Farmers and foresters produce large amounts of residue that is left unused, these leftovers can be used as biomass
o Unlike coal, biomass creates no sulfur of mercury emissions and has less nitrogen which will cause less acid rain and toxic air pollutants
o Biofuel can potentially produce less global warming pollution
o Switch grass is a native grass that is easy to grow and if sustainably managed will not be replace native habitat or take land out of food production
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Future of biomass.
o Setting standard to maximize benefits of biomass , to convert energy that can reduce carbon pollution
o Trees are not carbon neutral sources
o Timber harvest leftovers can be used, will not compromise the health of ecosystems and are small remainders from logging
o Crop wastes can be used instead for liquid fuels or invasive energy crops that require little fertilization rather than corn and soy beans
o Biofuels may eliminate demand for gasoline, alternate aviation fuels are being tested and approved
o Improved “gasification systems” bring down the cost of biomass energy to 5 cents per kilowatt hour
o Farmers will develop new sustainable cropping systems to find innovative ways to manage farmers and improve degraded soils
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