Can Biodiesel Replace Crude Oil
Can Biodiesel Replace Crude Oil
Why don't we just replace crude oil with biodiesel
biomass | transportBiodiesel is cleaner than crude oil, it is renewable, it is easy to manufacture, so why are we still using fossil fuel crude oil to make petrol and diesel? Why don't we just grow more crops and make more biodiesel and other biofuels?
Well in short, No, we cannot do that because there is simply not enough farmland on the earth to grow enough biofuel crops to yield sufficient oil to replace crude oil. With even with 1,000 barrels coming from each square mile of crops, and every inch of arable farm land in the world dedicated to growing biofuel crops, we would only be able to obtain 20% of the oil necessary to match world consumption today - and world consumption continues to increase as the amount of suitable arable farmland decreases.
However biodiesel is renewable, safe to handle, non-toxic, and better for a diesel engine than diesel itself, therefore we should continue to develop biodiesel as an alternative to fossil fuels in conjunction with other alternative fuel technologies. The world's crude oil supplies are going to run out sooner rather than later, so it has to be replaced with something soon.
Article Last Modified: 16:02, 29th Mar 2006Comment on this Article
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