Biofuels: Regenerative fuel from organic waste?
Electric cars are seen as the ne plus ultra when it comes to more environmentally friendly mobility. However, it is not possible to take all internal combustion engines off the market and off the roads at the same time. One solution to this is alternative fuels made from biomass. You can find out what you should know about the topic here.
The generic term “synthetic fuels” not only covers e-fuels, i.e. e-diesel or e-petrol produced with the help of hydrogen, but also the biofuels. In this guide you can read how these are produced and how sensible they are to be used.
Generational Gap: Biofuels Explained
The name alone makes clear the difference between previously used fuels made from fossil fuels. Instead, you win this from biomass, i.e. renewable raw materials. It is divided into generations.
Belong to the first generation Biodiesel or bioethanol, which is used, for example, as an admixture in E10. Bioethanol often comes from the sugar and starch contained in plants such as rapeseed, corn or wheat. So only a few parts of the plant are used to produce fuel, the rest is mostly processed into animal feed.
The second generation describes fuel made from plant material that is not useful for food or feed production. That can for example Agricultural waste, organic waste or crop residues be. For example, when sugar cane is used to make sugar, the by-product remains bagasse return. Straw and wood can also be used as a source. The fibrous plant remains consist largely of cellulose, which is difficult to digest. Since the process is technically very complex, the second generation cannot yet be produced economically.
A third generation is sometimes spoken of when Algae as raw material be used. Unlike plants, algae have a significantly higher mass for the area occupied. It is currently not foreseeable when and if the third generation will ever come onto the market (source: bmk.gv.at).
Why biofuel? Advantages and disadvantages
Why is biofuel even necessary? The question sounds silly given the 2022 energy crisis. The global demand for fossil fuels is still huge, even if the Investments in renewable energy have had a positive effect on them in recent years (source: Umweltbundesamt.de). Consumers are particularly hard hit by the Ukraine conflict initiated by Russia and the resulting oil prices.
An easily recognizable advantage of biomass compared to fossil energy sources is simply that Avoidance of dependency relationships of exhaustible resources and their suppliers. Another plus point is the sustainability of fuel production from biomass, i.e. the conservation of resources. Now, however, it is difficult to actually cultivate sustainably – especially those quotas that would be necessary to be able to do without fossil fuels entirely. As possible consequences and already existing problems of monocultures like canola and corn are humus loss and drought damage.
In addition, the effort would only be worthwhile to a limited extent, since biofuels are only partially more environmentally friendly than fossil fuels. Even if the focus on plant-based energy sources instead of lignite, oil and the like theoretically has the potential to be more climate-friendly, this is only possible under ideal conditions. To the wwf to quote: “The carbon footprint of the oil palm, for example, is only positive if it does not thrive where rain forest once stood. Goes Borneo Oil palm peat forest on fire, causing production of one ton Palm oil about ten to thirty times as many CO2 emissionsas would result from the use of one tonne of diesel.” Otherwise, only the amount of CO2 released that the plants have previously stored – the climate balance would be neutral (source: biokraftstoffe.fnr.de).
In my opinion, a complete switch from fossil fuels to biomass only makes sense if the cultivation of these both ecologically and socially compatible is. Until then, the expansion of wind, solar, water and geothermal energy remain the best opportunities, the enormous demand at some point “internal“ to serve and so the Dependency on import to reduce.
