BIOFUELS AS ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCE

This online magazine is a compilation of the semester papers and projects written in different genre, all covering biofuels. Energy and types of fuels as well as the issues surrounding them are one of my professional interests as a future chemical engineer. Aside from this reason, I chose this topic due to growing environmental problems in America and in the world and the need to raise awareness about these problems. The magazine “Biofuels as Alternative Energy Source” explores the environmental, economical, social and political questions associated with biofuel’s production and consumption. And biofuels, as a subject of research, provide all opportunities to reflect the complexity of its issues which is far beyond mere pros and cons.

Large portion of my research was focused on the ethanol industry, because it is a substantial part of American economy.  Later in the research I covered biodiesel and algae. There are many reasons for developing biofuels. Growing costs of oil, natural gaz and coal, America’s desire to reduce dependence on foreign fuel supplies, constantly increasing energy needs, and water and food scarcity are among them. But in my opinion global warming is the most important one. However, I have tried to remain objective and cover equally all aspects of biofuels industry. As I delve deeper into the topic, its complexity became more apparent to me.

I attempted to address this magazine to a broader audience with educational level of a college student and beyond.  Analysis and fair judgment backed up with the strong evidence from trusted sources is something that I have tried to incorporate in all my papers and projects. Taking into consideration the fact that the topic is rather complex and multisided, the Report and Sophisticated Argument papers are clearly structured using headings for each subsequent part to aid the reader’s understanding. Necessary definitions and explanations are presented in the beginning of the text. Unlike the first two papers, Creative Project and Review are parts of the magazine that allowed me to use nonfictional elements of creative writing, such as colorful lively language and emotion.

I spent a great deal of time revising and editing the magazine in order to improve the flow of the pieces. I completely reorganized the Report, structuring it as a point by point discussion of biofuels with the focus on ethanol. My first version was somewhat scattered and had parts of the different points being discussed in more than one place in the paper. I added examples to the points I made and strengthened the thesis statement. I also broke down longer sentences into shorter ones to make them easier to follow. In the Sophisticated Argument the most important revision I’ve made was strengthening my compromising solution. Instead of dispersing the effort on three different types of solutions, I chose to focus on one of them and explained it in a greater detail. I replaced some paragraphs with expanded solution covering algae’s potential as future generation biofuel.  I also added an example of how ethanol production causes food prices to increase. The Review paper required some changes in the evaluation criteria by adjusting them to that of the documentary review.  I also revised the narrative thread in order to present my experience with the film. This all was aimed to increase a reader’s understanding of the magazine and its specific parts and provide a reader with something fresh and interesting to read.

As you read it I hope that you’ll learn more about biofuels as alternative fuel source, become aware of the issues associated with production of various types of biofuels. And maybe reading this magazine will inspire you to become a more responsible citizen and motivate to conserve energy.