How can bioethanol fuel truly benefit the environment if it still releases CO2?
We cannot change the laws of physics – all combustion generates carbon dioxide. But BioPower benefits from another law of nature: when bioethanol is used as fuel, it does not add to global CO2 levels because it only ‘recycles’ CO2 already present in the atmosphere. More specifically, CO2 is removed from the atmosphere through photosynthesis when crops intended for conversion to bioethanol are grown. CO2 is then released (returned) to the atmosphere during combustion. In contrast, burning a fossil fuel such as petrol adds to global CO2 because it releases new amounts of CO2 that were previously trapped underground for millions of years. Finally, unlike oil, bioethanol is a renewable fuel, which inherently helps the environment by allowing us to conserve other energy resources.
