Biofuel Gets Mixed Reviews

Filed in archive Energy, Environment and Ecology on January 29, 2006

This entry is submitted by Gloria Gamat, via Creative Reporter."Ethanol fuel from plants may be more efficient that petrol, but for now it offers only marginal environmental benefits", states the first line in the recent Nature News.

Ethanol produced from the sugar in corn or sugarcane -- more popularly known as Biofuel, seem to be environmentally friendly at first but it has been getting mixed reviews lately because the intensive processing needed to make ethanol uses up more energy than it supplies.

"The reason for using bioethanol at the moment is not really to reduce carbon emissions," agrees Richard Templer, a chemist from Imperial College London, UK. Instead, one of the biggest reasons to switch is that it reduces a country's reliance on imported oil.

I think it would still take time and more research money to really come up with a genuine environmentally-friendly biofuel. At the moment, it is an alternative to oil but not necessarily a better one.

About Gloria Gamat: Gloria is a proud single-mom to Raine (Rainier Brando: born 29 December 2002) and a Chemist. Gloria also blogs about motherhood at EMothersOnline and about life and travel in the Philippines at The Philippine Culture Blog and at Pinoy Travel Blog respectively.