Biofuels cause pollution, not as green as thought - study

[dipsydoodle]

(Reuters) - Green schemes to fight climate change by producing more bio-fuels could actually worsen a little-known type of air pollution and cause almost 1,400 premature deaths a year in Europe by 2020, a study showed on Sunday.

The report said trees grown to produce wood fuel - seen as a cleaner alternative to oil and coal - released a chemical into the air that, when mixed with other pollutants, could also reduce farmers' crop yields.

"Growing biofuels is thought to be a good thing because it reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," said Nick Hewitt, who worked on the study with colleagues from England's Lancaster University.

"What we're saying is 'yes, that's great, but biofuels could also have a detrimental effect on air quality'," he added.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/01/07/us-climate-biofuels-idUKBRE90601A20130107

[hedda_foil]

1. They're calling growing trees for wood burning biofuels???

I figured it was about corn or switchgrass, maybe. But wood??? In what world is wood considered a clean biofuel?

[dipsydoodle]

2. Maybe in the context

of biomass boilers etc which run on wood chips as opposed to gas or oil.

[Yo_Mama]

3. Wood is considered a biofuel, yes.

The theory is that the replacement trees pull the carbon back out of the atmosphere, and that a lot of that carbon would be released into the air anyway as the tree decayed.

[lumberjack_jeff]

4. Of course.

Burning wood is no less carbon neutral than burning corn.

In fact, since very little energy is required to convert it into fuel-ready form, it's EROI is quite good.

Wood is the original biofuel.