Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Ambio. 2012 Jun;41(4):341-9. doi: 10.1007/s13280-012-0253-x. Epub 2012 Feb 16.
The large majority of biofuels to date is "first-generation" biofuel made from agricultural commodities. All first-generation biofuel production systems require phosphorus (P) fertilization. P is an essential plant nutrient, yet global reserves are finite. We argue that committing scarce P to biofuel production involves a trade-off between climate change mitigation and future food production. We examine biofuel production from seven types of feedstock, and find that biofuels at present consume around 2% of the global inorganic P fertilizer production. For all examined biofuels, with the possible exception of sugarcane, the contribution to P depletion exceeds the contribution to mitigating climate change. The relative benefits of biofuels can be increased through enhanced recycling of P, but high increases in P efficiency are required to balance climate change mitigation and P depletion impacts. We conclude that, with the current production systems, the production of first-generation biofuels compromises food production in the future.
迄今为止，绝大多数生物燃料是“第一代”生物燃料，由农产品制成。所有第一代生物燃料生产系统都需要磷 (P) 施肥。磷是一种必需的植物养分，但全球储量有限。我们认为，将稀缺的磷用于生物燃料生产涉及气候变化缓解和未来粮食生产之间的权衡。我们研究了七种原料的生物燃料生产，发现生物燃料目前消耗了全球无机 P 肥料产量的约 2%。对于所有被检查的生物燃料，除了甘蔗，对磷枯竭的贡献超过了对缓解气候变化的贡献。通过加强磷的回收利用，可以提高生物燃料的相对效益，但需要提高磷效率，以平衡气候变化缓解和磷枯竭的影响。我们的结论是，目前的生产系统下，第一代生物燃料的生产危及未来的粮食生产。
