Do biofuels always create smaller carbon footprints than their fossil-fuel competitors?
Not necessarily, finds a paper published in Elseviers Environmental Impact Assessment Review. The article, Charcoal versus LPG grilling: a carbon-footprint comparison, reports that in the UK, the carbon footprint for charcoal grilling is almost three times as large as that for LPG* grilling. The overwhelming factors behind the difference, notes author Eric Johnson, are that as a fuel, LPG is dramatically more efficient than charcoal in its production and considerably more efficient in cooking. Charcoal is produced by heating wood in a kiln; commercial yields of charcoal are only in the 20-35% range, i.e. most of the rest of the wood is converted to gas and emitted into the atmosphere. Yields of LPG, by contrast, are greater than 90%. LPG grills are akin to conventional cookers and ovens, in that they have power ratings and can easily be switched on and off. By contrast, charcoal grills do not offer easy mechanisms for regulating fuel consumption, and Johnson explained: The primary fact
