engleski

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES CONCERNING LARGE SCALE BIODIESEL PRODUCTION

Fossil fuels that mankind burns today in a single year were made from organic matter containing 44×1015kg of carbon, which is 400 times the net primary productivity of the planet’ s current biota. Such large consumption of fossil fuels introduced biodiesel as one of the alternative sources of energy that is needed for decreasement of dependence on fossil hydrocarbons and lowering of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. Therefore, EU goal is to achieve biodiesel share of 5, 75% in transportation sector until 2010. Biodiesel is often called clean, ecological and renewable alternative fuel. If whole situation is viewed globally, biodiesel could easily be named as one of the most dangerous sources of energy for Earth’ s ecosystem. Main threat from large scale biofuel utilization comes from deforestation of land needed for cultivation of crops. Every year large areas of rainforests in South East Asia and South America are irretrievably lost due to world biofuel demand. Millions of hectares are turned into large palm and sugarcane plantation endangering ecosystem and survival of many species. Furthermore, large scale deforestation is often being conducted with forest fires and drying swamp areas of rainforests. Combustion of wood and oxidation of peat during drying emits enormous quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere which is contrary to biodiesel appellation as “ CO2 balanced fuel” . Every energetic process and fuel must be viewed through complete production cycle and 4E principle: ecology, efficiency, economy and education. Croatia, with large present, but vacant, agricultural area could be example that biodiesel, only in small scale production could contribute to some decrement of fossil hydrocarbons dependence but not on today’ s perceptions and demands, without large impact on environment.

biodiesel; CO2 emission; deforestation;

nije evidentirano