Primary Assembly: The biofuel debate

***Assembly Plan***

The biofuel debate

The cases for and against biofuel are in the media spotlight

The biofuel debate is in the news. Will the practice of using plant material to make biodiesel and ethanol affect climate change or not? It's not an easy question and the arguments are complicated. But children are interested in sustainability and the aim of this assembly is to help them start to think about the issues.

Resources

• A potted plant

• A piece of wood

Introduction

Who used some fuel to get here this morning − petrol or diesel?

Sometimes it's easier to travel by car or bus. But the less fuel we use to get around, the better. In our cars and buses we use mostly fossil fuels – that means fuels that have been formed over millions of years under the ground by heat and pressure. This type of fuel comes out of the ground as heavy black crude oil and is refined into petrol and diesel and heating oil. We can't replace fossil fuels – when they run out, there will be no more. And, as you know, burning them produces pollutants, and greenhouse gases. So, as fossil fuels gradually run out, and the atmosphere becomes less pure, and less protective of our earth, we need to find other sorts of fuel.

[Show the potted plant]

Can we use plants like this to run our cars and buses? We can, because they can be turned into fuel – after all, the oil we get out of the ground was once plant material.

Story

Pete sat in the back of his grandad's car, watching the numbers tick up on the petrol pump.
When his grandad came back from paying for the petrol, he said

'You know, granddad, I always watch the numbers on the pump. Not long ago, the price in pounds used to lag behind the litres − so 20 litres was less than 20 pounds. Now the number of pounds races ahead of the litres, so 20 litres is 21 pounds.'

'Tell me about it,' said Grandad. That's a pound I can't spend somewhere else.'

'Why don't we go on the bus, then?' said Pete.

'Because', said Grandad, 'it's not very easy. Every Thursday I pick you up from school and bring you to our house for your tea. Then I take you back to your house when your mum gets home. Each of those journeys will take at least two buses – in fact from our house to your's I think it's three buses.'

'But you've got a bus pass. So it would be free for you,' said Pete.

'I've thought about it,' said Grandad. 'But it's just so convenient in the car. The buses would take the best part of two hours. In the car it's half an hour.'

Pete nodded. He wasn't sure he wanted to do a triple bus journey in the evening, with homework waiting at the other end.

'But', said Grandad, 'we really do have to think about not using fossil fuels − not so much anyway. One day the oil will run out. And if we haven't come up with something else by then, I don't know what will happen.'

'What else is there?' asked Pete.

'There's a lot of work going on with hydrogen' said Grandad. 'And then there are biofuels.'

'You mean chip fat?' said Pete. 'You could empty the chip pan in your car couldn't you?'

'It's not as simple as that', said Grandad. 'But you're right about using waste cooking oil. Some people are doing that already − it only works on diesel cars.'

'Isn't there anything for petrol cars?'

'There's ethanol, which can be made from plants, but it's more expensive to make' said Grandad.
'But petrol's expensive' said Pete.

'Yes, and that's why biofuels are being developed' said Grandad. 'Price is the key. Car makers have always known about biofuels, right from the start of motoring, but oil from the ground has been so plentiful and cheap they haven't bothered to develop other kinds of fuel. Now they'll probably have to.'
'But you can't stuff leaves and branches into your petrol tank!' said Pete.

Grandad laughed. 'Well, maybe not. But when you think about it, the most obvious biofuel is wood. In America for many years their railway engines were wood burning steam engines. Now that's a straightforward use of biofuel. Just think. If you grew wood specially for fuel, and kept replacing it, and then used it to power steam engines, that might be a sustainable bio-fuel policy.'

'But aren't steam engines old fashioned?'

'Only because nobody's really bothered to develop them' said Grandad. 'There were steam lorries when I was little, and there were steam cars before that. There were really no problems with them. It's just that they took a bit of time to get going in the morning, and people were in too much of a hurry. Now I reckon if the boffins got going on the idea of modernising the steam engine and running them on sustainable wood...hey, I'm on to something! I'm going to write to the paper about it.'

Pete sighed. 'You're always writing to the paper Grandad. I bet they say, "Oh dear, another letter from Mr Simkins".'

'They love it' said Grandad. 'They wouldn't print them if they didn't.'

Conclusion

[Hold up the piece of wood]

Is Grandad on to something do you think? After all, if you burn wood you're using biofuel. And he could be right about steam power. Do you know there's a group of experts building a car to break the steam car speed record? The record was set over a hundred years ago at 127 miles per hour and the aim of the British Steamcar Challenge is to do 200. The idea is to demonstrate that steam power is more environmentally friendly.

But the real effort at the moment is going into finding more sustainable ways of making fuel out of plant material for the vehicle engines we already have. That means making biodiesel for diesel engines and ethanol for petrol engines. There's a lot of waste plant material around, but to really make a difference, plants have to be specially grown − miles and miles of fields given over to plants that will make fuel. And there are some snags with that. Can you see what they are?

The big one is that the space we use to grow fuel can't be used to grow food, and that's going to be a real problem, especially in countries where food is already scarce and expensive.

What's the answer? Nobody really knows. One way or another the world has got to find a way of using biofuels, but exactly how, and how much will be needed isn't at all clear. Meanwhile we ought to be cutting down on using cars as much as possible − walking short journeys, cycling medium journeys and using train and bus for longer ones wherever possible. That's often difficult, as Pete's grandad explained, so maybe he'll write a letter to the paper about the bus service.

Prayer

Lord, help us to protect the future of our planet, so that it's safe and beautiful in the years to come. May we be unselfish, imaginative and mindful of the needs of others, those living now and those yet to be born.

Reflection

There's only one world, and it's our duty to look after it and pass it on in full working order to future generations.

Things to think about...

• Find out about the British Steamcar Challenge

• Get the facts about biofuels – many websites put across just one point of view. So although the Energy Future Coalition site is good for the facts, it says nothing about the downside.

• Find the arguments against biofuels at Biofuel Watch and at Greenpeace   

This e-bulletin issue was first published in April 2008

About the author: Gerald Haigh