Essential Points On The Potential For Widespread Adoption Of Biodiesel
There is a question whether we, as a society, will adopt biodiesel and we need to address a number of complex and sometimes related challenges first. While there is, as yet, only a limited amount of comprehensively researched data available, many factors are changing in favour of biodiesel fuel. Just 10 years ago, widespread adoption of biodiesel as an alternative fuel mode seemed unlikely, but that situation is certainly changing fast.
We are all becoming very aware how traditional fossil fuels have caused damage and become a great concern for the future. Greenhouse gases associated with the production of petroleum and our other energy needs are causing a highly detrimental change to our planet’s average temperature. This type of climate change is leading to results that we can already see and we can be very worried about the problems that could face future generations. We know that we must make changes and reduce our reliance on these traditional forms, yet to this point change has been slow to come. We often do not like changes and challenges to the way that we exist and we certainly do not like additional economic costs associated. However, adopting alternative energy production processes and consumption patterns may put us at competitive disadvantage compared to countries that do not.
If we’re slow to act, scientists and environmentalists tell us that harm could become irreversible. Consequently, governments are starting to consider taxation of carbon itself, forcing organisations through market pressures to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and increase their energy efficiency. This could help to balance the playing field for biodiesel fuel. If traditional petroleum fuels become even more expensive due to carbon related costs, biodiesel fuel will become more palatable.
Further to that, as society becomes increasingly more worried about climate change, it is likely to turn toward measures and solutions that are seen as being far “greener.” Biodiesel fuels may represent a premium over alternatives and may be more difficult to find, but nevertheless a trend toward them will begin. People will experiment with ways of making biodiesel and commercial solutions will emerge around the country.
Farmers have been worried about declining demand for their products in recent times. As homemade biodiesel relies on vegetable oils or surplus oils and animal fats, crop producers could find a ready market for soybeans, for example providing the raw material essential for the production of the fuel. Wouldn’t it be nice to keep the revenues from production and sale of our fuels within our communities and keep them from flooding overseas? By the 2020s, fully two thirds of the revenues associated with fuel purchase could be filtering its way to foreign countries, unless we’re careful.
Sustainability is going to be a very hot topic during this new decade. The biodiesel industry will be very much to the fore. With so much at stake, not only with respect to the long term financial stability of our country, but also the priceless global sustainability which could be achieved, can any of us really afford to continue to wait until someone in power makes a decision?
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