Rapeseed biofuel "produces more greenhouse gas than oil or petrol"

Hello again
It's been a while, I know. Magnificently busy, if you'll allow the phrase, recently. All kinds of paid and NGO work plus a superb poetry workshop that has inspired me tremendously. More on that, hopefully, a little later.

For now, I want to share with you just one voice that will (I hope) dampen enthusiasts who thought we might resolve our energy and environmental problems by using food plants to produce ethanol or oil-based fuels for our cars. Not so. The way things look, we may end up jumping out of the frying pan into the fire, almost literally so.

Here in Switzerland, we're trying to get people to stop using the term "biofuel" as it evokes the wrong kind of connotations. "organofuel" or "agrifuel" would probably be better because of the way these crops are produced: large-scale industries producing crops in monoculture fashion. They have very little in common with sustainable agriculture and seem to me to be just another way of making money big time. What they have already produced is a lot less food sovereignty in threshold countries like Mexico. Possibly, even food security is at stake.

Let's not let them get away with it. What we need is a serious push for way more economic transport -- the technology is available and so are the products. Listen up, politicians, and push for those changes!

****
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article2507851.ece

From The Times -- September 22, 2007

Rapeseed biofuel "produces more greenhouse gas than oil or petrol"

Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter

A renewable energy source designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is contributing more to global warming than fossil fuels, a study suggests.

Measurements of emissions from the burning of biofuels derived from rapeseed and maize have been found to produce more greenhouse gas emissions than they save.

Other biofuels, especially those likely to see greater use over the next decade, performed better than fossil fuels but the study raises serious questions about some of the most commonly produced varieties.

Rapeseed and maize biodiesels were calculated to produce up to 70 per cent and 50 per cent more greenhouse gases respectively than fossil fuels. The concerns were raised over the levels of emissions of nitrous oxide, which is 296 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Scientists
found that the use of biofuels released twice as much as nitrous oxide as previously realised. The research team found that 3 to 5 per cent of the nitrogen in fertiliser was converted and emitted. In contrast, the figure
used by the International Panel on Climate Change, which assesses the extent and impact of man-made global warming, was 2 per cent. The findings illustrated the importance, the researchers said, of ensuring that measures designed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions are assessed thoroughly before being hailed as a solution.

[...]

"One wants rational decisions rather than simply jumping on the bandwagon because superficially something appears to reduce emissions," said Keith Smith, a professor at the University of Edinburgh and one of the researchers.

Maize for ethanol is the prime crop for biofuel in the US where production for the industry has recently overtaken the use of the plant as a food. In Europe the main crop is rapeseed, which accounts for 80 per cent of biofuel production.

Professor Smith told Chemistry World: "The significance of it is that the supposed benefits of biofuels are even more disputable than had been thought hitherto."

It was accepted by the scientists that other factors, such as the use of fossil fuels to produce fertiliser, have yet to be fully analysed for their impact on overall figures. But they concluded that the biofuels "can contribute as much or more to global warming by N2O emissions than cooling by fossil-fuel savings".

The research is published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, where it has been placed for open review. The research team was formed of scientists from Britain, the US and Germany, and included Professor Paul Crutzen, who won a Nobel Prize for his work on ozone.

Dr Franz Conen, of the University of Basel in Switzerland, described the study as an "astounding insight".

"It is to be hoped that those taking decisions on subsidies and regulations will in future take N2O emissions into account and promote some forms of 'biofuel' production while quickly abandoning others," he told the journal's discussion board.

Dr Dave Reay, of the University of Edinburgh, used the findings to calculate that with the US Senate aiming to increase maize ethanol production sevenfold by 2022, greenhouse gas emissions from transport will rise by 6 per cent.
*****