CAN BIOFUELS REPLACE FOSSIL ENERGY FUELS? A MULTI-SCALE INTEGRATED ANALYSIS BASED ON THE CONCEPT OF SOCIETAL AND ECOSYSTEM METABOLISM: PART 1

Many claim that biofuels represent a viable and desirable alternative to fossil energy fuels. This paper (the first of a series of two) provides a critical appraisal of the claim that a large scale move to biofuels is either feasible or desirable for powering the economy of a developed country. This conclusion is based on an integrated analysis of the performance of biofuels versus that of fossil energy fuels. The text is divided into 2 main sections. Section 1 provides a semantic framing of the issue. Two metaphors are used to explain why biomass energy was abandoned during the industrial revolution in the first place: (1) the Yin-Yang tension between recycling (to increase ecological compatibility) and linearization (to increase economic competitiveness) of the flows metabolized by society; (2) the energy sector of a society seen like the heart for the human body. An alternative heart, to be viable, must deliver the supply of blood which is expected by the rest of the body both in terms of quantity and quality. This section concludes that for a developed society not everything that can be burned should be considered as a desirable fuel and it provides a framework for such an evaluation. Section 2 provides a critical appraisal of the option of biofuels as an alternative to oil. The high labor and land demand per net unit of biofuel delivered to society makes this option not compatible with the typical patterns of metabolism found in developed societies. In relation to ecological compatibility, fossil energy made it possible for the first time in the history of humankind to generate problems on the sink side (accumulation of CO2 in the

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