Is Bio-Fuel Really Environmentally Friendly?

Monday, 31. May 2010

As Europe attempts to run their cars on anything other than petrol or diesel including chip fat, wee and rapeseed oil, otherwise known as bio fuel, new evidence is emerging that it may not be as environmentally friendly as it was thought. Reuters put in a freedom of information request to the European Commission for information on bio fuel CO2 emissions and found that biofuels produced from rapeseed had an indirect carbon footprint of 150.3kg of CO2/gigajoule compared to conventional diesel or petrol of 85kg. It all gets very technical after that whilst the French energy agency defends its policy to develop bio fuel technology and frankly I got bored but it seems clear that we need more information about the bio fuel production costs in terms of CO2 emissions before we go wholesale down the same path. I’m just off to test the wee in my tank bio fuel theory, although I think you have to drink a litre of Vodka first before it will work. Back to the drawing board. By Graham Hill