Biomass and biofuels

Biomass and biofuels

The cost of producing biofuels is too expensive

Not all farmers and governments trust on this fuels

Brazil

Launched his National Alcohol Programme

Make ethyl alcohol from sugar cane

Production of petrol-only vehicles had stopped

This made air pollution to reduce in huge amounts

New vehicles running on pure

How environmentally friendly are biofuels?

Are produced by intensive agriculture

Lead to

Monoculture

Agriochemicals

Creates less greenhouses gas emissions than fossil fuels

They are carbon neutral

Gasohol

Mixture of petrol and ethanol

Ethanol

Were created

Massive amounts of sugar canes

There was spare capacity in its sugar mills

Obtained from

Fermented and distilled products of crops

Used in petrol engines

Corn and sugar cane (ethanol)

Lower toxic exhaust emissions

Vegetable oils

Used in diesel engines

(methyl esters)

Fuels made from crops and mainly used for transports

Can be stored and used when needed

According to WWF

Could provide 15 per cent of the electricity needed in developed countries (by 2020)

2 per cent of the land area would be needed

From which crop, forest, and livestock products and their residues could be collected

In contrast to the 1 per cent it contributes at present

Should be a renewable energy source

A big amount of people are consuming fuelwood resources faster than they are being replenished

Population pressure

Is used a lot in developing countries