London, United Kingdom
March 27, 2008
Pressure from those with vested
interests, including farmers and biofuel manufacturers, plus
muddled planning by decision-makers, threaten to take the
country down an energy supply dead-end, said the chief executive
of the Royal Society of Chemistry
today.
Richard Pike called for restraint on the promotion of biofuel as
the simple answer to Britain's future fuel demands and urged
clear debate and sounder legislation to make sure that the right
answers are found to the challenges ahead.
"Future historians may ultimately see the biofuels of the early
twenty-first century as a technological dead-end," said Dr Pike.
"We have to bear in mind that the 80 tonnes of kerosene used for
a one-way commercial flight to New York is equivalent to the
annual biofuel yield from an area of approximately 30 football
pitches."
He added: "The way ahead has to include research into increasing
biofuel yields dramatically and investigating artificial
photosynthesis for alcohol production, but also placing higher
priority on other, much more efficient land-based technologies.
"Photo-voltaic cells raise the prospect of converting 20% of the
sun's energy, and concentrated solar power devices still more.
Coupled with a new generation of high-capacity electric
batteries and hydrogen storage devices (using this gas from the
electrolysis of water), this will provide the longer-term
solution for vehicles at a fraction of the biofuel use of land.
"Key decision-makers have had misconceptions of energy matters
over the years. It is essential that politicians, scientists and
the wider community engage more effectively to avoid the
repetition of knee-jerk directives that are not properly
researched, and ultimately which could be counter-productive."
Also, he said, there was no sound evidence-based logic for the
choice, made five years ago, for 5.75% use of biofuel in petrol
and diesel for road vehicles by 2010.
"Even at the time of this decision, at the practical level it
was known that the use of fertilisers, coupled with harvesting,
manufacturing and distribution, all drawing on fossil fuels,
would limit significantly the net benefits of the biofuel route
in reducing the carbon footprint of transportation."
Furthermore, he asserted, natural photosynthesis is an extremely
inefficient process for transforming the sun's energy into
liquid fuel. The typical yield of 4 tonnes of biofuel per
hectare (10,000 square metres) per annum represents less than
one percent of the sunlight absorbed by the Earth's surface (a
global average of approximately 174 watts per square metre),
which is why such large areas of land are required to support
this option. |
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