COULD BIO-FUELS BE THE ANSWER TO OUR INCREASING FUEL NEEDS

This is very highly, unlikely to happen! The amount of plant biomass
needed to be able to generate enough liquid fuel will impact negatively
on other essential resources. Space are already a problem, the
population are growing at a very high rate. Water that is already in
short supply in our country, as well as much needed agricultural lands
would have to be sacrificed, to accommodate these crops. For good crops
with optimal biomass production, there must also be other inputs, like
oil, to plough and maintain these crops. Machinery that uses fuel to
operate will also be needed to convert the biomass into liquid- fuel.
This means that will be a net loss of energy. In this case it would
actually be more feasible to burn the inputs as primary source and
forget about the plant biomass. Bio-fuels would also be very expensive
to start off with. Big storage facilities would be needed to convert the
biomass. This can also be very labor intensive and not very economical.
These plants would have to be in rural areas, to accommodate the need
for space. This will mean that it will still need to be transported to
city centers. In most scenarios bio-fuels will only use more fuel than
it will produce, so we will have to look at other alternatives.

Eugene Marinus
2357422@uwc.ac.za