Agrofuels or Biofuels? Proposal to distinguish them.
Econologie.com proposes to decide on the definition of biofuels in order to avoid the confusions relayed by the media between anti-econological agrofuels and 2nd and 3rd generation biofuels, econological themselves…
Agrofuels are currently very popular in the media but they are also widely criticized by some environmentalists who condemn them systematically.
This condemnation of biofuels in the broad sense is mainly due to the influence they have on the price of cereals and consequently on the capacity of agriculture to feed humans, which is, let us remember, its primary function. For more details on this subject read the new agrofuel, eat or drive is this the right question?
But too often these condemnations (justified for some but not in other cases) are quickly generalized to all biofuels, something difficult to accept because they are false in many cases, i.e. on the biofuels of 2ieme and 3ieme generation!
We would therefore like to propose a definition distinction between the concepts of agrofuels and biofuels according to the following very simple criterion:
- Agrofuel: fuel made from food or food plants. Example: ethanol made from corn or wheat.
- Biofuel: fuel made from non-food biological resources (for humans or our farms). Example: ethanol produced from woody waste (wood).
Thus we would find the notion of agriculture for agrofuels and this would make it possible to stop the amalgamation which systematically condemns all biofuels because 3 multinationals have decided to currently develop the worst agrofuels in terms of overall energy balance ...
Indeed; corn ethanol seems to be both an energy and an ecological disaster (soil pollution, monoculture, etc.).
A new study on the energy balance of the beet, corn and wheat bioethanol sectors will be carried out, because a number of experts have questioned the calculation methods of the Price Waterhouse Coopers Ademe-Direm 2002 study, which nevertheless served as a basis for setting up bioethanol channels.
The energy balances of bioethanols, beet, maize and wheat biofuels are challenged by a number of experts. They criticized the Price Waterhouse Coopers Ademe-Direm 2002 study, which served as a basis for setting up the bioethanol sector, for not taking into account all the energy costs attributable to the production of these biofuels. . A new, more contradictory analysis is planned. The various points of contention also relate to taxation and therefore the cost to the public finances and the fate of co-products essentially animal feed proteins.
Read more: Biofuels, ethanol eco-assessment, questioning of the Price Waterhouse Coopers study.
Any reaction to this proposal is welcome: Agrofuel or biofuel? It's necessary to choose
Related topics:
- second-generation biofuels
- Biofuels, downloads