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Biofuel is carbon-neutral because the carbon comes from the atmosphere. It's fine to burn it because its emissions have already been bought and paid for in its
by dTal 7y ago
Biofuel is carbon-neutral because the carbon comes from the atmosphere. It's fine to burn it because its emissions have already been bought and paid for in its creaion. The problem with carbon is digging it up, in an open cycle.
Renewable is a more strict term than carbon-neutral, it's true, but all "renewables" are by definition closed-loop and hence carbon-neutral.
- acidburnNSA 7y agoThis is a common but incorrect assumption. Biofuels are very far from carbon neutral. Renewable is in no way restricted to the desirable. As an extreme case in point, wood in particular is a horrifying energy source due to health detriment from particulates. Have a look at some data: https://partofthething.com/thoughts/wp-content/uploads/ipcc-co2-of-fuels.png https://partofthething.com/thoughts/wp-content/uploads/ipcc-... Source: Schlomer S., et.al., 2014: Annex III: Technology-specific cost and performance parameters. In: Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the 5th Assessment Report of the IPCC https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5_annex-iii.pdf https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5...
- dTal 7y agoSetting aside other issues with it like particulate emission, how can it be anything other than carbon neutral? Where could the surplus carbon possibly come from?
- acidburnNSA 7y agoWhen biofuels are valuable, people clear forests to make biofuel. The carbon payback period can be up to 1000 years. It's called indirect land use change [1,2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILUC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILUC [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofuel#Greenhouse_gas_emissions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofuel#Greenhouse_gas_emissio...
- yellowapple 7y agoOkay, but the problem we're trying to solve is the carbon being in the atmosphere, so even biofuel is objectively far worse than, say, solar.
- dTal 7y agoMaking the biofuel takes exactly as much carbon out of the atmosphere as it releases when burned, so no it is not far worse from a global warming perspective.