Are Alternative Fuel Vehicles Really Green

From Green Options

Alternative fuel vehicles come in many forms. For example, there's the diesel engine that can use biodiesel without modification, or be tweaked to run on straight vegetable oil (SVO), or waste vegetable oil (WVO).

Reusing materials before discarding them is the most efficient and eco-friendly option. With WVO the oil was formly used, for example in a fast food restaurant, to fry food. Hence the joke that biodiesel cars smell like french fries. WVO is easier for the general public to use at home, thus making the conversion to this cleaner fuel a no-brainer. Additionally, petroleum diesel remains an option if biodiesel is not readily available.

Alternative fuel vehicles come in many forms. For example, there's the diesel engine that can use biodiesel without modification, or be tweaked to run on straight vegetable oil (SVO), or waste vegetable oil (WVO).

Reusing materials before discarding them is the most efficient and eco-friendly option. With WVO the oil was formly used, for example in a fast food restaurant, to fry food. Hence the joke that biodiesel cars smell like french fries. WVO is easier for the general public to use at home, thus making the conversion to this cleaner fuel a no-brainer. Additionally, petroleum diesel remains an option if biodiesel is not readily available.

One other point to keep in mind is that biofuels often do more harm than good. This is because to grow a biofuel crop, it requires changing land use from something like a forest, for example. Changing land use from a forest or grassland to agricultural land decreases the amount of carbon dioxide that's being absorbed, and land use change is actually the #1 largest contributor to human greenhouse gas emssions.

Biofuels involve the transformation of biomass energy into an equivalent form that is readily usable by an internal combustion engine. There are two main sources for biofuels: sugars/starches and plant oils. Biofuel derived from sugars/starches involves fermentation and distillation to covert the biomass into alcohols, such as ethanol. Direct oil recovery from plants, such as soybean or algae, is more efficient and results in an end product that is readily usable by diesel engines with a minimum of chemical processing required to meet fleet standards. In the United States, most of our biofuels are obtained from corn and soybeans at present; and in the near future, switchgrass. EROI is an important measure of positive, or negative, benefit for a given biofuel. Ethanol has an EROI of 0.9-1.3, while that of Soybean Biodiesel is 3.2. The low EROI, especially of ethanol from corn, has sparked a debate as to the utility of using food for fuel.