What are the pros and cons of having Biofuels (and/or nuclear energy) as an alternative to oil?
There are many different types of biofuels. Both ethanol and bio-diesel are just first generation biofuels which have relatively few benefits, though bio-diesel is a much better idea than ethanol. However, the next generation biofuel promises to be much better even to the point of being carbon negative. Specifically, if synthetic gasoline/diesel is synthesized from syngas produced by gasification of biomass which could be trash or even dried sewage, carbon could be sequestered in the charcoal byproduct used as biochar. Unlike ethanol, hydrogen, and battery based technologies, these synthetic fuels would not need new vehicles nor would they need separate or improved distribution infrastructures. The biggest problem with any biofuel is that there isn’t enough biomass to provide our current energy consumption let alone future needs. However, it’s not necessary to use biomass to synthesize gasoline/diesel. With clean sources of energy such as solar, hydro, wind, tidal, geothermal and nucle
