Do biofuels emit CO2?

You might have heard of biofuels – these are typically liquid fuels like ethanol or biodiesel that can partially or fully replace fossil transport fuels such as gasoline or diesel.

World over, many vehicles are encouraged to run on biofuels.

But biofuels are hydrocarbons too. When any hydrocarbon burns, it emits CO2. And so do biofuels, in amounts comparable to those from conventional transport fuels.

So, running a car on biodiesel or ethanol will emit CO2 for sure. But the carbon emitted was originally captured from the atmosphere by a plant from which the biofuel was derived. As a result, you are only emitting back to the atmosphere what was originally captured from it, unlike in the case of gasoline or diesel where, you are emitting carbon to the atmosphere that was originally under the earth.

This is the reason that biofuels are considered to be a low carbon alternative to conventional transport fuels – implying that, there is a significant reduction in emissions when the entire life cycle is accounted for.

By the way

Biofuels are estimated to cut down net CO2 emissions by 75-80% compared to diesel or gasoline based on a life cycle analysis evaluation.