What is more important? Should this question not answer itself really?

Bio Fuel Production takes land!

And where does the land come from? There are only few ways that more land can be farmed for Bio Fuels – and this can only be thru deforestation of not yet farmed land, changing of seeds on existing farmland or restart farming on previous farmland. The last option is very small, as it has only occurred in the EEC to pause farming land due to over-production of farm products. So we are left with the 2 options – using food for making either oil or ethanol, or we can deforestate land in Malaysia and Phillippines to grow more palms. But this is not a sustainable development! We cannot just deforestate land, when we should actually re-create rainforests. More and more land is claimed for agriculture, which in turn ruins the chances of survival for endangered species and also increase risks of landslides or desertification.

Bio Fuel makes food prices soar

Within just 48 hours, several people in Denmark has mentioned to me that they feel food prices are increasing at a much too fast pace. However, we should not complain as we do not spend nearly 100 per cent of our income on food like they do in large numbers in Africa, Middle East and Asia. The food prices have sky-rocketed in those places. Wheat, corn and rice prices have doubled, tripled or more in just some months. Governments are struggling to keep prices down thru subsidising the food. If the population is not able to feed themselves, anarchy or riots could soon occur and cause even greater trouble. In volatile and unstable countries, this situation is threatening and worrying.

But this should not happen at all. WE in the West created this food shortage. We started burning human food in order to protect ourselves from being too dependant on oil ressources.

What is even worse to think about is: When the price for crude goes up, the price for bio fuel will follow. When the price of the dollar goes down, the price of oil goes up. The US economy is seriously hurt at the moment. This causes the dollar to drop further and prices are increasing.

Where will this end?

Bio Fuel Vs. Food is a post from: Bio Fuel Info

Carbon Credits Explained

Basically, Carbon Credits is a quota for how much Carbon Dioxide a company is allowed to emit into the atmosphere each year. For example: Company A emitted 200,000 tons of Carbon Dioxide in 2001. For 2002, Company A is allowed to emit another 200,000 tons of CO2. As no company will ever use the exact amount of allowed energy, then there are 2 possible scenarios that will occur: Either the company emits too much CO2 and is therefore fined or the company emitted less CO2 and is rewarded for saving the energy. Naturally, the company knows before the end of the financial year, if they need to purchase Carbon Credits or if they can sell Carbon Credits on the Carbon Exchange.

Private consumers purchase Carbon Credits

Some environmentalists argue that when private consumers purchase Carbon Credits on the market – in the belief that large multi-national corporations are thereby forced to reduce their emissions – then they have achieved something. Well, perhaps bying a Carbon Credit should not stand alone? Perhaps one should make sure that he has exchanged all the light bulbs, secured the insulation, reduced water spillage and much more – prior to purchasing the Carbon Credit? What about reducing the excess driving and walk/bicycle more often?

Alternative CO2 reduction projects

The private consumers could also choose to support other CO2 reducing projects in less developed countries. In the Western society, many industrial plants are already optimized and well-maintained, whereas South America, parts of Asia and Africa there will be lots of potential for changing production patterns and optimizing processes or retire old equipment and put new energy saving equipment instead. There are already projects being started and some running in Malaysia and Africa, so this could certainly offer premium alternatives to just purchasing a carbon credit for destruction. Be pro-active and take the lead rather than pull the brakes – if I may be so blunt.

Carbon Credits At A Glance is a post from: Bio Fuel Info

1 ton less CO2

In March 2007, the Department of Energy in Denmark started the campaign “1 ton less”, which objective is to make Danish citizens save 1 ton of CO2 each year. People sign up via the webpage www.1tonmindre.dk and commit themselves to saving an amount of CO2. You could say that it is just like making a vow. There will be no punishment for not achieving the targeted savings, except from loss of face.

The webpage focuses on giving people opportunities to save energy. Some advice is well-known to most people, but some is less known. In order to save as much energy as possible, it is great that programmes like these arise. Sometimes it just takes a little more to get things started. It is not always fun to save energy, but now the competitive aspect has come into it as well. We are competing with ourselves and our neighbours about who can save the most energy – great idea!

1 ton less CO2 in USA

A project in USA named “One Ton CO2″ works in a slightly different way, but with the same objective as the Danish programme. The project is indirectly purchasing CO2 reductions for 1 ton for each T-shirt they sell. It works out the way that they buy a verified carbon dioxide reduction in form of a carbon offset purchased thru Chicago Climate Exchange.

Slogans from the T-shirts sold under the programme “1 ton less CO2″

1 less tonne CO2 in Canada

Like in Denmark, Canadians have the opportunity to commit themselves and their household to a number of savings of CO2. Well, this is great news to all of us actually, as Canada is one of the countries in the world, where most CO2 is being emitted per person. Try out their 1lesstonne-programme here.

Do you know of any other incentive or programme? Please post it below! Your comments are much appreciated too.

Programmes to reduce CO2 emissions – 1 ton LESS CO2 is a post from: Bio Fuel Info

…or do we really?

Global Warming

There are many ideas about the cause of Global Warming. Some of them say that due to much more solar activity the global temperature is rising, others say that burning of fossil fuels or over population is the cause. Perhaps we don’t know for sure, if increased emissions of CO2 due to burning of fossil fuel is the cause for Global Warming, but if we think of it this way instead: Burning billions of litres of a sticky black substance, which smells bad, emits particulate matters when burnt and is irreplaceable for some millions of years – is that good?

If we stop for a minute and think – not of scientific proof, but just plain reasoning. Is it really good for the atmosphere to burn something like fossil fuel? If we stick with that question alone and nothing else, what would our conclusion then be? My guess is that most people would vote no – it is not good.
Ok, but is it the cause of Global Warming? We don’t really know, do we? Some scientists say yes, others no.

Nevertheless, we have no bulletproof conclusion of the damages of burning fossil fuel. However, we should most certainly still think about reducing the consumption of fossil fuel. It cannot be replaced. It was never meant to be burnt in a large scale as it is today and we will have used all of it before the end of the century.

Carbon dioxide

Most people are not aware that they create 2.65 kilos of CO2 every time they burn ONE litre of diesel. That is a lot of CO2, isn’t it? Do you have any idea how much space 2.65 kilo CO2 takes up? Have a look at the picture below. This balloon contains 1 tonne of CO2 – which is equal to about 377 litres of diesel burnt!

What is my point here? Basically, I want you to start thinking about this: Where is all that CO2 supposed to go? We do not know for sure, if CO2 is the cause of Global Warming, but it certainly cannot harm anyone to start reducing it.

But – we should not jeopardize our health by burning fuels that have not been thouroughly tested first. More about this in another post.

Your comments are welcome as always!

CO2 – HYSTERIA OR WHAT? is a post from: Bio Fuel Info

There is a worldwide rally to increase the use of bio fuels in order to decrease CO2-emissions to the atmosphere and in turn fight Global Warming. But what is bio fuel really?

It is actually quite simple. Bio fuel replaces diesel in some instances or is added to diesel, thereby reducing the amount of fossil fuel being burnt. Another kind of bio fuel is alcohol, which is added to gasoline only.

The word bio is supposed to be understood as “green”, because bio fuels are made of plants, recycled material, garbage or other disposable material. If the fuel is derived from fossil fuel, it cannot be “bio”, but is a petrodiesel.

The various kinds of bio fuels.

Gasohol

In some countries, terms like Bio95, E95 or E5 is the common name for gasoline containing ethanol (which is pure alcohol). It is often referred to as Gasohol. B95/E95 and B5/E5 is actually the same and it means that 5 per cent of the gasoline has been replaced by pure alcohol. B90 and B10 is 10 per cent alcohol. Most countries so far have only implemented a mixture of 5 per cent alcohol, others none and very few are contemplating the introduction of B20, consisting of 20 per cent alcohol. However, these blends have been facing some difficulties, which I will discuss in a seperate article. The distribution of alcohol for use in gasoline is also facing some security issues, as pure alcohol naturally is easy to sell.

Drink or fuel? Ethanol is very popular!

Gasohol in 2008 is made of plant materials such as corn, rice, grain, cassava, sugar cane or other edibles. This means that human food sources are being utilized for production of fuel. It has caused some shortages on the world markets for corn and grain, and the prices have skyrocketed.

Many countries and corporations are researching for alternatives to using human food. This research is primarily targeted the leftovers from the production of human food, which naturally is better than burning human food in vehicles. This is called 2. generation gasohol.

Plant oils

Most bio diesels are made of plant oil or recycled cooking oil. The most popular bio fuels or bio diesels are:

Rape seed oil

Palm oil

Sunflower oil

Soy bean oil

Coconut oil

Regenerated cooking oil

Jatropha/ curcas oil

others

Rape seed oil

Rape seed is a very popular bio fuel in North Europe. Rape seed oil is being manufactored on a large scale in Germany and is mainly used there, but manufacturers in Denmark and other European nations deliver the rape seed oil to German filling stations. Rape seed oil can be used in its pure form, but it takes a retrofit diesel engine to be able to use pure rape seed. Apparantly most of the bio fuel sold in Germany is B5 and not the pure form. If any of our readers have any other information, please do tell us.

Palm, sunflower, soy bean and coconut oils

…are mostly used in blends as B5 or B10.

Cooking oil has been used a number of times to cook human food and is then gathered, refined and reused in diesel as B5. So far, I have heard it is being used in Austria and plans do exist in Norway also, but I am not familiar with many countries using this yet.

Jatropha / Curcas is the same fruit or more precisely – a nut. It is quite small and for hundreds of years most people in Asia have known this as highly toxic (eating the nut or the oil will kill you quickly) and most people have had this Jatropha plant as a natural division between their soil and the neighbour. In other words, the fence has become fuel.

Jatropha is actually quite interesting – as it will grow in deserts thus reducing landslides and keeping the soil in place. It needs very little water to grow and one tree can deliver tonnes of oil annually. So far, the oil have been used for making soap and candles, but research in India, Thailand and other parts of the world is taking place, so the seed of this plant should soon be used as fuel too.

In a great number of places, Jatropha is being cultivated on a large scale – as this is seen also as the rescue for many poor farmers in less developed countries. I was first introduced to Jatropha in a Thai University in 2007 and I am following the development of curcas oil closely.

Naturally, there is a lot of other oils that can be used as or is being used as bio fuel. I will be happy for any comments or additions to this article.

What is BIO FUEL? is a post from: Bio Fuel Info

About is a post from: Bio Fuel Info