Bio-fuels have several environmental benefits when compared to the fossil fuels they will displace.  From productions to end use, biomass energy systems have the potential for solving environmental problems.  They can turn municipal, agricultural, and forestry waste into energy resources, relieving pressure on landfills. 
Perennial energy crops can provide year-round ground cover, keeping sites that are prone to erosion under conventional cropping systems productive and profitable.  Combustion of bio-fuels can reduce vehicle-related air pollution in urban areas.  And bio-fuels release little new CO2 to


 

the atmosphere because bio-fuels feedstock's recycle atmospheric carbon during growth.
     Because of new federal clean air legislation, it is important to emphasize the role that bio-fuels can play in
achieving a cleaner environment.  Use of bio-fuels, such as butanol, methanol, ethanol, and other oxygenated biomass derivatives, can have a beneficial impact on air quality, particularly in the transportation sector.
     There is little doubt that the growth of bio-mass feedstock's is one of the best ways to remove CO2 from the air and
ameliorate global warming.  Bio-fuels are the only energy technologies that can both remove atmospheric CO2
and reduce the amount of fossil fuels burned.  In addition, displacement of fossil fuels by bio-fuels can eliminate or reduce atmospheric sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, and unburned hydrocarbon fuels, all of which contribute to poor air quality.  Poor air quality in turn leads to poor public health and a deteriorating environment.
    However, this is not to say that we should not be vigilant in the development and use of bio-fuel technologies.  Like all energy systems, those that use
bio-mass can also pose environmental questions.  Bio-mass based fuel cycles will require land and equipment for feedstock production, storage, and transportation.  Commercial scale bio-fuel markets will result in large bio-mass production and conversion facilities, fuel transport and some fuel combustion.  Questions can arise at each stage.
     Photovoltaics when coupled with biomass, through the process of photosynthesis can store the sun's energy giving the U.S. a good supply of benign, low cost, low emission renewable fuels; even during the long periods of inclement weather.
 

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