Biodiesel doesn't increase the concentration of Greenhouse Gases in the atmosphere. True or False?

Contributed by Dr Karabi Dutta
13 March 2007

A news release issued by Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona says that careful analysis of the life cycle of biodiesel reveals that the energy (and CO2) savings is not so high as expected. It might even be negative.

In the March 8, 2007 issue of the Science Daily an interesting thought provoking article has been published on Biodiesel. Excerpts from this article are presented below.

Biodiesel is not currently competitive with fossil fuel-derived products. In order to make their price similar to those of petrol and diesel under current market conditions, they are subsidized.

In Europe, Biodiesel is subsidized in three ways:

  1. Agricultural subsidies, mainly granted within the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy
  2. Total or partial de-taxation, which is indispensable, because energy taxes account for approximately half of the final price of petrol and diesel
  3. Biofuels obligations, which establish that the fuels sold at the pump must contain a given percentage of biofuels
A point that is often raised to promote biofuel transport fuels is urban pollution. Biodiesel is not only seen as a "green" fuel on a global scale (reduction of greenhouse effect) but also on a local scale. They would contribute to reducing traffic contamination, and therefore the numerous ailments associated with it. Biodiesel may the answer for some people to the new findings that particulate matter emissions from fossil fuel burning vehicles are linked to global warming.

However, a new study of the life cycle of biodiesel reveals that the energy (and CO2) savings is not so high as it might seem at first sight, and in some cases might even be negative. In fact, the raw materials for biofuels are normally obtained with intensive agriculture, which imply a high use of fertilizers, pesticides and machinery. The reason is that, with less intensive agricultural methods, the yield would be lower and the land requirement and the costs would be higher. Also, fossil fuels are used in the processing phase (oil pressing, trans-esterification) and for transporting the oil seeds to the processing plant and from there to the final users.

Due to the low yield, the land requirement is enormous. This means that the impacts of energy farming would be exported to Southern countries. It is easily foreseeable that if the European demand for biofuels increased because of biofuel obligations and other supporting policies, Southern countries may be stimulated to replace if not food crops at least native forests with large monocultures.So energy farming will lead to deforestation and its related problems.

To get more information on this topic: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070307152728.htm