Biofuels Are A Potential Low Carbon Energy Source: by Christopher West

Biofuels were invented by Nazi Germany prior to WWII; check any book on history and you will see. Germany is land-locked country with no oil fields. Biofuel is a contentious subject. The amount of land needed is staggering. Biofuels are fuel components produced from renewable materials such as plants, straw or bio-mass waste products such as poultry litter. Is there merit to seeking innovative ways to meet our nation’s increasing energy needs in a world of limited fossil fuel production?
Biofuels production (Ethanol and Bio-Diesel) is on a fast-track in the USA today and we can provide the funding to get them built and online. Alternative Fuels Finance, LLC offers construction and permanent financing, mezzanine and equity funding.
Ethanol subsidies put livestock producers at a competitive disadvantage as relates to corn procurement. Hog prices will not increase on their own just because input costs have risen. Ethanol can be produced from a variety of materials, and other options are being explored now for production in the U.S. Although not yet in large-scale commercial production, cellulosic ethanol is an emerging technology to produce ethanol from agricultural waste and forestry residues such as corn stalks or rice husks, or from purposefullyâ€"grown crops such as switch grass or trees. Ethanol is made from corn and can be run in a Flex Fuel or converted gasoline vehicle. Biodiesel can run in any conventional diesel engine and is commonly made from soy beans.
Production and consumption of agricultural products in general will grow faster in the developing countries than in the developed economies - especially for beef, pork, butter, skimmed milk powder and sugar. OECD countries are expected to lose export shares for nearly all the main farm commodities. Producers get credit for a facility production rate of 25 million gallons annually, or 125 million gallons over the five-year lifespan of the 2005 incentive. Producing electricity from bagasse, a by-product from the sugar industry, harnessing wind and solar energy can prove to be more sensible options for our country. We also need to invest in research so that we produce vehicles that are more efficient in energy consumption and less polluting.
Biofuels are a potential low-carbon energy source, but whether biofuels offer carbon savings depends on how they are produced. Converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands to produce food-based biofuels in Brazil, Southeast Asia, and the United States creates a biofuel carbon debt’ by releasing 17 to 420 times more CO2 than the annual greenhouse gas reductions these biofuels provide by displacing fossil fuels. Biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel are often touted as a panacea for a host of environmental and energy-related problems. This hot topic has even become a centerpiece of high level geopolitics, as evidenced by President Bush's recent trip to Brazil , where ethanol was a principle area of discussion.