450 words and essay on bio fuels
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In recent years environmental problems, especially the use of fossil fuels, has become one of the most commonly debated issues. It is widely known that fossil fuels are non-renewable resources and the use of fossil fuels harm the environment, such as the combustion process of fossil fuels that leads to global warming. However, current societies are still dependent on fossil fuels. Because of the environmental problems and in order to decrease the wide-ranging consumption of fossil fuels, researches argue that agricultural based fuel or bio-fuel is one alternative to replace fossil fuels and apply it as a new energy source. In general, bio-fuels are fuels that predominantly are produced from bio-renewable or renewable feedstock, such as…show more content…
One of the most conspicuous problems has undoubtedly been the worldwide food crisis (Murphy, 2009). The production of bio-fuels crops increases the competition in land utilization among food crops and bio-fuels feedstock. Hence, food prices that are based on the same yield will increase sharply and consequently might result in food shortage for people who spend most of their household income on food (Cockerill & Martin, 2008; Popp, 2010; Reijnders & Huijbregts, 2009). Thereby, the huge subsidization of bio-fuels tends to give higher priority to bio-fuels rather than foods. This often results in reduced the food production and increase the food prices. Food shortage and great food prices have many negative effects for societies because food is fundamental to maintain life. The sharp upsurge in prices of food crops generates difficulties for the larger part of the world’s population. It has exacerbated the malnutrition and world hunger in countries and also makes the poor suffer (Murphy, 2009). Secondly, production costs of bio-fuels can vary widely depending on the feedstock and the process of the production. Bio-fuels crops are eighty percent of the total operating cost of bio-fuels (Demirbas, 2009). As the price of food crops increases, it influences on bio-fuels prices which rely on the same feedstock.
Answer:
A biofuel is a fuel that is produced through contemporary processes from biomass, rather than a fuel produced by the very slow geological processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. Since biomass technically can be used as a fuel directly (e.g. wood logs), some people use the terms biomass and biofuel interchangeably. More often than not however, the word biomass simply denotes the biological raw material the fuel is made of, or some form of thermally/chemically altered solid end product, like torrefied pellets or briquettes. The word biofuel is usually reserved for liquid or gaseous fuels, used for transportation. The EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration) follow this naming practice.[1] If the biomass used in the production of biofuel can regrow quickly, the fuel is generally considered to be a form of renewable energy.