What do you think about biofuels and petroleum? For a very long time petroleum has been the main source of humans for heating their homes, driving cars and also flying on airplanes. In the past petroleum was a very good way to make fuel and it was also cheap, but now since the conditions have changed it should no longer be the first choice, because its price is getting higher and in 53 years there won’t be enough of it left if we continue to consume it at this rate (George & George 2014). Scientists have been working on biofuels for years now and actually at first Henry Ford was going to fuel his car Model Ts with ethanol which was popular in the beginning of the 20th century. Even the early diesel engines were running on peanut oil. At the time, there were a lot of petrol reserves found, so there was no point in working on biofuels anymore. As a result, the world quickly changed to petroleum and biofuels lost their popularity pretty quickly (National Geographic 2017). Nowadays, with the decreasing amount of petrol reserves, biofuels are going to take over many areas because they are environmentally friendly, renewable, and getting cheaper.

The first reason why the biofuels are more environmentally friendly is because they are made out of forest wastes and plants, which means that new plants could always be grown and the only carbon dioxide that they are releasing is the carbon dioxide that is packed in the plant itself that is being turned into fuel (Boeing 2012). Until now the first choice was petroleum but now things are about to change because of the high carbon emissions that fossil fuels are releasing. Even though biofuels are very efficient and clean they still produce some greenhouse gases but compared to fossil based fuels it is significantly less up to 78.5% less carbon dioxide emissions. Releasing less carbon dioxide is not the only advantage of biofuels but also while they are growing because in many cases they are made out of plants they also clean the carbon dioxide that was already existing. One of the other benefits of biofuels to the environment is less environmental disasters, because the oil wells are also producing pollution as an example in 2010 an underwater oil well in the Gulf of Mexico burst and released millions of gallons of oil to the ocean and causing an unknown amount of damage (Strickland 2012).

The second reason why biofuels are becoming more and more popular is because they are  a renewable energy source. The word renewable means that energy source that is being used should be replenished easily and quickly and not have a finite limit (Biofuels 2010). Fossil based fuels are nonrenewable so it would take a lot of time for them to be replenished since they are made out of plants that have been fossilized and turned into fuel. It would consume a lot of time and energy to fossilize a plant and then turn it into fuel and it is also pretty hard work, so it’s simply not a choice. Growing plants is always possible as long as you have a few things such as land, water and also seeds. If you know how to turn them into fuel, you will have clean, renewable, and maybe even cheaper fuel compared to the fossil based ones, which makes it great. The military branches of the US is already using renewable fuels or biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel blends to fuel 20% of their vehicles (Soapbox).

The third reason why people are using biofuels is because they are also making economic sense, meaning they are cheaper. Biofuels are being mixed with other types of fuels in many cases and this is lowering their price (Pros and Cons of Biofuels 2011). The other advantage that biofuels have with their price compared to fossil fuels is that a lot of research is being done on them and scientists are looking for new and even cheaper ways to make them and also they have already come up with new options and types. On the other hand, fossil fuels are not being improved and they are only being consumed, which means that their prices will continue to get higher over time and at some point they will no longer be usable. In many countries biofuels are already being used and they are providing 10% of the world's energy (Schill 2013). Even though biofuels are not the cheapest by themselves in this time period, just by looking at the investments done by the governments and also the researches we see, the price of biofuels will only go down from here and the price of fossil fuels will keep increasing. The second generation of biofuels are an amazing replacement for fossil-based fuels in the transportation industry because the only thing that has to change is the fuel itself, everything else will stay the same and the airports and the plane companies will not need to change their systems and this will especially save the airports’ paying billions and maybe even trillions of dollars (Boeing 2012).

In conclusion, biofuels are nowadays considered the best replacement for the fossil fuels and they have a lot of potential to be even better than the fossil fuels in the near future since there is a lot of research being done about improving them. Many companies and even countries are getting ready for a cleaner future and also working for it come as fast as possible. Even though humans are going to increase the amount of biofuels that is being used this doesn't mean that the world will stop using oil completely but instead, this means that we are going to use fossil fuels less and in many areas biofuels will take over the show because they will be cheaper, renewable, and they are the better option for the environment.