Biofuels and ecology

Life-cycle analysis and the ecology of biofuels.

Biofuels have been proposed as an ecologically benign alternative to fossil fuels. There is, however, considerable uncertainty in the scientific literature about their ecological benefit. Here, we review studies that apply life-cycle analysis (LCA), a computational tool for assessing the efficiency and greenhouse gas (GHG) impact of energy systems, to biofuel feedstocks. Published values for en...

Biofuels

The global energy market provides humans with about 370 exajoules of energy per year, which is equivalent to about 170 million barrels of oil per day (Box 1) or about 11.73 terrawatts (TW) per hour [1]. Approximately 95% of this energy comes from fossil fuels. Additionally, the International Energy Agency suggests that direct combustion of plant biomass provides about one-third of the energy ne...

Biotech Biofuels: How Patents May save Biofuels and Create Empires

The United States’ primary transportation energy sources are fossil fuels, namely, gasoline and diesel. These products have high environmental, security, and financial costs. A strong emphasis has been placed on biofuels, especially ethanol and biodiesel, to lessen the United States’ reliance on fossil fuels. Historically, high production costs, lack of infrastructure, return on investment anxi...

Biogas and Liquid Biofuels

Biomass residues can also be converted into various non-solid fuel forms. These fuels are referred to as biogas and liquid biofuels. The aim of this conversion process is to improve the quality, specific energy content, transportability, etc., of the raw biomass source or to capture gases which are naturally produced as biomass is micro biologically degraded or when biomass is partially combust...

Biofuels and the environment.