THE impact of creating biofuels through de-forestation is more environmentally harmful than using diesel or petrol, reports The Environmental Transport Association.THE environmental impact of clearing forests to make way for biofuel crops is such that using fossil fuel in cars is better for the environment than biofuels made from crops such as palm oil.
Under the minimum sustainability standard set by the European Commission, biofuel should reduce emissions by at least 35% compared with fossil fuel, but the results of a study reported in The Times newspaper recently reveal that palm oil increases emissions by 31% because of indirect land use change (ILUC). ILUC results in a release of carbon when forest and grassland is turned into biofuel crop plantations. Other commonly-used biofuel crops such as rape seed and soy also fail to meet the standard.
The Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation requires that by 2020 the amount of biofuel added to diesel be increased to 13%, but once ILUC is taken into account the entire EU biofuel policy is questionable. The EU spends L3billion each year on subsidising biofuel production.
The Environmental Transport Association’s view
The European Commission cannot simply gloss over the effect of ILUC – if biofuel is to be used it must be environmentally robust. Tax the producers of carbon dioxide and other climate change gases, and changes will occur faster than if government tries to second guess future technologies and personal taste. Biofuel could be a false dawn but in a future guise it could be great – just tax what we know to be bad and the good will flow from the results.
Is all biofuel bad for the environment?
A distinction must be drawn between first-generation biofuels, which use food crops such as corn, rapeseed, palm and soya, and the currently experimental second-generation fuels based on fibrous non-food plants which could be grown without displacing other crops and raising food prices.
It is possible to turn used cooking oil into environmentally-friendly biofuel that can be used in many diesel-engined vehicles. The ‘FuelPod 2’ is the size of a small fridge and is capable of producing up to 50 litres of biodiesel every day.
Editor’s note
The supermarket Morrisons decided to withdraw the availability of its B30 blend bio mix diesel from February 2010. The retailer had been selling B30 (a 30% biofuel mix) at 144 of its filling stations for the past two years. However, Morrisons said the government’s decision to remove the duty incentive on biofuels had put the future of B30 and other high blend fuels such as E85 (a petrol biofuel blend) into doubt. Morrisons says it wants the government to re-think its decision to remove the biofuel duty incentive.
Morrisons said vehicles running on E85 can make considerable carbon savings compared with conventional fuel. CO2 emissions from the Saab 9-5 BioPower engine, for example, are around 70% cleaner when running on E85 as opposed to petrol. The status of E85 as an environmentally-friendly alternative to fossil fuels is reinforced by strong take-up in other European countries. In Sweden, 1 in 5 forecourts sold E85.
Further information
For more on biofuel, go to the Environmental Transport Association website: www.eta.co.uk
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