The Pros & Cons Of Biofuels, and Why Some Diesel Engines Are So Polluting

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May 24, 2018

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by Andy Miles (EVObsession) ... Bio-fuels can be classified into four types;

Solid fuels for domestic heating, and for industrial processes, such as firing boilers for electrical generation, or other purposes.
Bio-diesel, meaning any plant oil that can be burnt in a diesel engine.
Bio-ethanol, which is just alcohol, and can be used as a substitute for petroleum, and other volatile liquid fuels, or blended with bio-diesel to make less dense fuel-oils.
Bio-gas, which is just methane, and is identical to so-called “natural” gas from fossil-fuel sources, which is supplied on the national gas grid, for domestic heating, and cooking, and for industrial users. It can also be used like LPG, (Liquid Petroleum Gas), for powering motor vehicles.

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As it is, progress is very slow, if not non-existent, and governments, and corporations, are largely perverse in their business-as-usual approach, while they talk much, but do little, or nothing, or even work actively against progress being made. Any transition period, therefore, is likely to be extremely long, and during that period, it will be better for people to be burning bio-fuels, than fossil-fuels. Progress is so slow, in fact, that even a move towards using bio-fuels would be part of the transition itself, rather than something put in place up front, to enable a short transition period.

It could also be the case that in some processes, and applications, it will prove difficult, or impossible, to replace a fuel-burning system with something operated entirely by renewable energy. There again, if we have to burn fuel, it would be better for that to be bio-fuel, than fossil-fuel. READ MORE