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Salma Alba
Mr. Rutti
AP Environmental Science
5 March 2015
Response to The False Promise of Biofuels
As great as the idea of biofuels seems, there has been evidence proving that it has
challenges and that the idea of making biofuels is actually every difficult. Biofuels is not
commercially competitive regardless of all the research being done on it. Also, turning the
biomass into a commercially viable and a combustible liquid has been found to be more difficult
than one wouldve thought. Range Fuels closed its newly built biorefinery without it selling
anything due to the challenges they faced during the making of the biofuels. Like Range Fuels
other companies such as Cilion and Ethanex Energy have gone out of business due to the cost
of making the biofuels. In addition, the biofuels is not meeting the expectations even though
there has been a rapid expansion in the recent years for the corn ethanol.
Corn ethanol is widely produced due to the subsidies. Researchers and scientists have
turned their attention to cellulose to be used to produce corn ethanol. Yet, the conversion of the
cellulose in the cornstalks, grasses and trees is turning out to be more expensive and
challenging than expected. In order to make corn ethanol, about 40% of the nations corn crop.
As a result, it causes the food prices to go up and it is taking away the food from the people.
Further advances in the biofuels production have promised to fix this problems through the
usage of brewed from the sugar extracted from husks and stalks of the corn plant. The cellulose
within these parts arent used for food for niether humans or animals. The human race has
spent 9,000 years trying to come up with ways to exploit the enzymes and yeast in order to
ferment sugars that come from corn kernels, sugarcane, and other plants to make ethanol.
During the past decade or so, there have been many infrastructures of corn mills, stainless-
steel fermentation tanks, and other equipment established throughout the Midwest. Corn
ethanol is that it is not very energy-efficient and it is not carbon- neutral. It is estimated that if all
the U.S. corn crop of 2009 was used only for the production of ethanol, it would only replace
18% of the U.S. gasoline consumption. Moreover, the production is limited due to the fertile
land. J. Craig Venter, a co-founder of would-be algae producer Synthetic Genomics, calculates
that in order to replace all the U.S. transportation fuels with corn ethanol it would take a farm
that is three times larger than the continental U.S.
As mentioned previously, cellulose is can be used to produce cellulosic ethanol.
However, it is difficult and expensive to break down. Acids, enzymes or other methods are used
to break down cellulose into the constituent sugars. On the other hand, the energy that can be
produced from the waste cellulose can actually be potentially huge. The central challenge is that
of finding a way of breaking down a plants cell wall efficiently. First there is the lignin and then
the hemicellulose. Past these there is the fibrous core in which the cellulose that will be used to
make the biofuel is. One of the inspirations for breaking through the organic barriers is that of
leaf-cut ants because they build an external gut that turns cellulose into fuel. The other
inspiration was cows because they break down cells through crushing grass between their
powerful teeth and then washing it in a bath of saliva. Oil companies are starting to invest in
ethanol fermented from sugar cane instead of stover because it delivers more energy and it is
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easier to grow. Brazil itself supplies 7 billion gallons of ethanol from sugar cane annually.
However, the production destroys Brazilian natural habitats.
Some scientist have turned to use algae as another alternative because it may efficiently
turn incoming photons into stored chemicals energy. Algae is the titan of photosynthesis so it
can make plant matter faster. Algae can be grown in undrinkable water or sewage water thus
not interfering with our freshwater.Yet, it has problems that are manifold such as how will they
prevent organisms from falling prey to predators if grown in open ponds. Algae defense against
long periods without sunlight or nutrients by producing hydrocarbons and such stress makes the
algae grow slower. Scientist are trying to find a way to go against this and make them grow
quicker in response to stress. Companies that are producing algae are trying to overcome all
the obstacles faced by changing microorganisms genetic code with chemicals and radiation.
However, there are no robust combinations. Researchers have started to tweak genes of
microorganisms to manufacture the magical bug that can produce the product wanted. Despite
the endless research, scientists havent come upon the resolution and the quest to find a better
biofuel continues.