First tops, then flops. That is one way of summing up the
history of biofuels so far. A new study led by Empa gives an up-to-date picture
of the ecobalance of various biofuels and their production processes. Only a
few are overall more environmentally friendly than petrol.
In recent years, the demand for supposedly environmentally
friendly biofuels has increased significantly worldwide; on the one hand, this
has resulted in the increased cultivation of so-called energy plants and, on
the other hand, innovative production methods for the second generation of
biofuels have been developed.