The Weird History of Biofuels and Why They are NOT a Climate Solution
Fuel made from plants and even food waste. It makes sense to solve two problems: CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels and methane emissions from throwing food waste away.
But what are biofuels, and is it actually a good climate solution?
What is Biofuel?
According to the US Energy Information Administration, the EIA:
“The term biofuels usually applies to liquid fuels and blending components produced from biomass materials called feedstocks. Biofuels may also include methane produced from landfill gas and biogas and hydrogen produced from renewable resources. Most biofuels are used as transportation fuels, but they may also be used for heating and electricity generation.”
The History of Biofuel
Biofuel may be older than you think! It sure was for me! In the loser definition of the word, it’s just using any liquid biomass as a type of fuel source for energy. So, oil lamps from as early as 4000 BC are considered to be operated with biofuels.
Though in the more modern sense, when was the first time we refined oil from biomass and started using it on a mass scale? Specifically, how did we create engines and machines that could run off of biomass?
Here is a short timeline from the Renewable Fuels Association:
1826–1828: English chemist Henry Hennell and French chemist Georges-Simon Serullas independently discovered how to synthesize pure ethanol chemically from ethylene. This is thanks to thousands of years of human history involving fermentation and distillation.
1826: Samuel Morey, an American inventor, developed an engine that ran on ethanol and turpentine.
1860: German engine inventor Nicholas Otto used ethanol as the fuel in one of his engines. Otto is best known for his development in 1876 of a modern internal combustion engine.
1896: Henry Ford built his first automobile, the quadricycle, to run on pure ethanol.
1908: Henry Ford designed the Model T to run on pure alcohol, though cheap petroleum soon took over the market.
Well, I didn’t expect to get angry while scripting this. What do you mean the first mainstream engine was run off of fossil fuels?
Now I fear we must side-track…why did we convert to fossil fuel usage then?
The Diversion Away from Biofuels
Natural oil and gas seeps have been observed all over the world, and many indigenous people used them as energy sources long before colonization and capitalists drilling for oil. But, according to Wikipedia, on August 27, 1859, George Bissell and Edwin L. Drake made the first successful use of a drilling rig on a well drilled especially to produce oil, at a site on Oil Creek near Titusville, Pennsylvania. The Drake partners were encouraged by Benjamin Silliman (1779–1864), a chemistry professor at Yale, who tested a sample of the oil, and assured them that it could be distilled into useful products such as kerosene for lamps.
Interest soon spread across the continent and by the start of the 20th century, oil was all the rage.
Biofuels were popular at first due to accessibility. Every settlement operated around crops and waste, and biofuels were available to anyone who grew crops. Once fossil fuels became accessible, it was game over for biofuels. Why?
Fossil fuels pack significantly more energy by weight and volume than plant-based fuels. This means a vehicle can travel much further on a smaller, lighter tank of gasoline or diesel than it could on ethanol or vegetable oil. This was likely the main reason for the switch. Plus, with the car boom of the early 20th century, it was going to take a ton of land to make enough plant-based energy to operate all of these vehicles. Pair this with government subsidies and early oil barons, it’s no wonder we strayed from biofuels.
The Resurgence of Biofuels in the US
Two main events lead the US to become interested in the ethanol once again in the 1970s:
Phasing lead out of oil (lead is an octane booster which increases the efficiency of the fuel as it combusts. Ethanol is also an octane booster)
The oil embargoes from the Middle East that started during Jimmy Carter’s presidency. Learn more about US climate policy over the years in this video. It was actually seen as an act of patriotism in the late 1970s to be FOR ethanol vs fossil fuels!
The 1980s brought about many tax incentives to switch to ethanol, and even the US government was doing audits of ethanol processing facilities around the country to encourage more production. In the late 80s, it was found that oxygenated fuels with ethanol helped to reduce carbon monoxide emissions and allowed the fuel to burn more completely. Turns out I learned something from chemistry…this additional molecular oxygen could turn carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide. The addition of oxygen to the carbon atoms adds weight; therefore, burning one gallon of fuel produces more pounds of CO2 than the fuel originally weighed. More on the impact of fossil fuels later.
During this time, farmers were incentivized to plant more, fertilize more, and just generally farm more, which was great for food production, but it did lead to a surplus. What could the government do with all of this extra corn that they told farmers to plant? Make fuel out of it (well, and high fructose corn syrup, but that’s not why we’re here today). Well, supplement gasoline with ethanol to create a new fuel, flex fuel, or E85.
In the late 1990s, we finally started to see mass-produced modern flex-fuel cars, the very first being the 1996 Ford Taurus. But, with only 169 stations in the United States selling E85, most flex fuel vehicles are still operating on gasoline.
And even more recently, in 2024, the first facility to make bio-based jet fuel began operations in Georgia.
What is Biofuel made of today?
Ethanol is simply alcohol. You could call a bottle of vodka alcohol as much as the stuff we add to gasoline to make E85. But, let’s stick to fuel.
According to Wikipedia, “Ethanol is naturally produced by the fermentation process of sugars by yeasts or via petrochemical processes such as ethylene hydration. Ethanol occurs naturally as a byproduct of yeast metabolism in environments like overripe fruit and palm blossoms, during plant germination under anaerobic conditions, in interstellar space, and in human breath.”
For fuels, according to the US Department of Energy, they can be made from “corn grain (as it primarily is in the United States), sugar cane (as it primarily is in Brazil), or from cellulosic feedstocks (such as wood chips or crop residues).” As well as, 94% of the ethanol produced in the US is corn-based. “Ethanol produced from corn demonstrates a positive energy balance, meaning that the process of producing ethanol fuel does not require more energy than the amount of energy contained in the fuel itself.”
But there is also biodiesel. According to the University of Michigan, “Biodiesel accounted for 9% of U.S. biofuel production in 2022. It can be made from animal fats, grease, vegetable oils, and algae. Common U.S. feedstocks include soybean oil, corn oil, and recycled cooking oils.”
The Environmental Impact of Biofuel
So far, we’ve learned that Ethanol added to petroleum has helped it burn more efficiently, but it still leads to CO2 emissions. Though it’s not all bad news. According to the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, “using ethanol helps reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 30 – 50%.” Not only this, but they also state that “to produce a gallon of gasoline, it requires anywhere from 2.5 – 8 gallons of water. In comparison, it takes 2.7 gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol.” Now, that’s still a lot of water and to be expected considering we have to grow crops to turn them into fuel, but at least it’s better than oil!
Though that may be all of the good things we can say for ethanol. Yes, let’s acknowledge that it is better than fossil fuels, but that doesn’t make it perfect, and it may not even make it a viable future solution for the planet. More on that at the end.
According to the University of Michigan, “Increased U.S. biofuel production may increase global GHG emissions due to higher crop prices motivating farmers elsewhere to convert non-cropland to cropland, releasing stored carbon and preventing future carbon storage. Globally, arable land used for biofuels is predicted to rise from 2.5% to 6% in 2050” It just doesn’t make any sense to attempt to save biodiversity from climate change via ethanol when planting corn and other crops to make ethanol would also destroy biodiversity, just more directly and more quickly.
Is this the future of transportation?
Well, many experts at the University of Michigan agree that “there is concern that replacing gasoline with corn ethanol is unlikely to contribute significantly to climate change mitigation.”
And, I have to agree, despite not being an expert in fuels. Though I have been researching these topics for enough years to understand that there is not a single solution to climate change. I think ethanol added to our fossil fuels can be a good way to reduce emissions while we are still incentivized and often forced to drive gas-guzzling cars. Until companies and governments start to incentivize green energy and EVs (check out the nuance about EVs here), ethanol is a good baby step to keep emissions on the lower side. Though I truly just think it is a baby step and not an excuse to keep producing more and more ethanol, since it may be doing more harm than good.
I’ve explored other means of transportation over the years, such as self-charging roads for EVs, but nothing quite beats walking and biking, along with advocating for more accessibility to these things. Much of North America can’t walk or bike due to urban sprawl and poor city planning. Unless you work for Big Oil, then this plan that you laid out is perfect. But also take and advocate for more public transportation. If countries as large as China can get nationwide high-speed rail, so can we! If we can fund data centers no one wants, we can fund rail that everyone wants!
Ultimately, the experts at UMich agree: the best thing we can do here is to limit all fuel usage. Ethanol is fine, but it is not an excuse to overproduce corn or overconsume fuel. Both are damaging the planet. Here are some ways to boycott big oil without having to give up your car.
So, what do you think about biofuels? I sure learned some interesting history. This was fun to write up!
As always, remember that your small actions make a big difference in the long run :)
Emma
