over the last several decades we've
poured billions of dollars into biofuel
research so why can't you fill up with
it at the gas station yet
where are the biofuels after all the gas
you put in your car is essentially an
ancient biofuel it used to be organic
matter mostly algae actually that over
millions of years was compressed within
the earth into fuel hence the term
fossil fuel it consists of hydrocarbons
which we can burn breaking those bonds
to release energy to power stuff like
our cars so surely in this age of modern
science we can engineer new fuels out of
those same raw materials right turns out
not so simple see the idea behind
biofuels is that we use organic matter
like straw or corn or sugarcane and turn
it into liquid fuel ideally the gases
that are released when we burn that fuel
are equivalent to the emissions that are
absorbed by growing them in the first
place so the whole cycle is what we call
carbon neutral it produces zero net
emissions plus we won't run out of them
because we can just grow more that's why
biofuels are so attractive we could have
energy security and reduce emissions
even create whole new agricultural
sectors but the amount of energy that's
packed into that really potent fossil
fuel is pretty hard to rival take
ethanol a common first generation
biofuel it's an alcohol which requires
plant biomass to be fermented distilled
and dehydrated to take it from the crop
we grow in the field to what you put in
your tank in the US for example we've
mostly used corn and just growing it in
the first place requires intensive
resources not just energy but land water
fertilizer that causes pollution and
growing corn for ethanol can directly
compute food production after growing it
we have to then process that raw corn
into fuel this is time money and energy
expensive plus actually putting ethanol
in cars is a bit of a stumbling block in
general if we want to use different fuel
we'll have to change the way we make
most cars especially in the US and
ultimately creating ethanol is so
resource intensive these fuel products
can actually end up producing even more
emissions throughout their lifecycle
than fossil fuel
scientists have recognized these
failures in recent years and have
developed more efficient second
generation ethanol out of cellulosic
material the denser inedible parts of
crops this doesn't compete with existing
food pipelines and actually results in
more energy pay off but the distillation
process remains expensive and energy
intensive it may be more energy dense
material but it's also harder to break
down into fuel in the first place Brazil
has had more success with sugarcane
ethanol production but all of the niles
still have yet to break even in terms of
practical widely used energy parity okay
but ethanol is not the only biofuel out
there we also make biofuel out of algae
which again involves cultivating and
harvesting these microorganisms then
putting them through an energy intensive
process that squeezes those lipids out
of the algae cells we then refine those
oils and turn them into fuel same kind
of problems here as with ethanol we
haven't been able to turn this process
into something that on the whole creates
less emissions and is less expensive
than regular fuel because of all the
resources that go into processing it
plus these organisms are plagued by
predators in large cultivation ponds and
keeping them alive in industrial
quantities is tough but lots of cool
research is going into fixing these
particular problems but what if we took
an already processed food by-product
like used french fry grease and used it
as fuel
we just need to refine it a bit through
a process called transesterification
into something called hydro treated
vegetable oil this can and has been used
to fuel large cargo ships and produces
less carbon dioxide and polluting
particulates than traditional fuel for
these large energy intensive vehicles
these materials are more energy rich
than first gen biofuels like pure
ethanol but you guessed it the
conversion process is still really
expensive and biofuel like this works
primarily in diesel engines which aren't
as common in some places around the
world like in the u.s. in Sweden however
hvo already makes up a vast majority of
their bio fuel and biofuel in general
makes up about 1/5 of their
transportation fuel sources so it is a
promising contender we've been trying to
make biofuel work since the early 1900s
and we're still not there yet but we are
innovative scientists are now
genetically editing plants to make them
produce more of the fatty oil we use to
make the fuel hopefully allowing us to
get a higher energy yield from the
resources we've put into cultivating
that organism and some experts think
that even as the market shifts towards
electrifying cars and trucks on the road
biofuel fill a valid option for powering
big pollution heavy vehicles like
container ships and airplanes maybe the
real problem is how we've been talking
about all this everyone wants to hype
biofuel is the thing that's gonna save
the world but we're still on the journey
hopefully we won't give up yet because
there's really exciting technology in
the pipeline that could get us there and
that needs support but the clock is
ticking and it feels like time and
patience is running out what do you
think about biofuels still promising or
will something else beat green fuel to
the road let us know in the comments
below and if you always want to check in
on big questions like this one don't
forget to subscribe to seeker thanks for
watching