The following headline in Spanish paper ELPAIS on 12th September has caught my attention:

“Biofuels don’t reduce CO2 emissions. This statement opens the interview of Chemistry Nobel Prize Winner Hartmut Michel. The interview questions the suitability of biofuel. I am not an expert, so I can simply recommend the article.

These are further extracts from the interview:

“to produce biofuel, such as ethanol, it is necessary to invest much energy in the shape of fertilizers, transport, as well as on distilling the alcohol. (…)Nearly as much energy is required as that later found in the ethanol. And if you obtain that energy from fossil fuel, you end up emitting more CO2 than you would if you simply used petrol in your car.”

“Biofuels are promoting the loss of tropical jungle in Indonesia, Malaysia, some regions in Africa and Brazil. In Brazil the issue is soya: more and more soya is being cultivated in the jungle. Burning up the jungle in order to produce soya liberats an enormous amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”