University of Vaasa - Vaasan yliopisto

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Socially, bioliquids creates jobs both in the industrial and farming side. Biodiesel has
provided jobs to the whole value chain from palm oil farmers to the distributors. As
palm oil is produced in areas where poverty is an issue, job opportunities can
decrease hunger and locals can use palm oil as an energy and heat source. However,
there is another side to this story: due to land rights issues, the farming of large palm
oil plantations has created major disputes between companies/local authorities and
native tribes in Indonesia, which has made the living conditions dangerous and very
uncomfortable to local people. As palm oil is used for many purposes by food
industry, cosmetics industry and chemicals industry – it does not really contribute to
loss of food. Other oils used for bioliquids – soya oil, rapeseed oil and sunflower oil
– are more important foodstuffs, particularly since they are essential ingredients of
healthy diets. It is recommended that these oils should replace animal fat in cooking
and salads and on bread. That is why using these oils as raw materials for fuels is
questionable: many people think that food should not be used for fuel either in
developed or developing countries.
Yet bioliquid types of biofuels have a potential culturally because they are well
known and close to the basic fossil fuel and diesel, and, therefore, easy to take into
use. Bioliquids are effortless for people to adapt to, as they do not require anything
new from a consumer during usage. Their consumption pattern is the same as with
fossil fuels – there is no need to do anything extra. During summer 2009 Neste Oil´s
biodiesel called NExBTL was taken into usage in some Neste Oil stations in the
southern part of Finland, and people noticed no difference at all. The culturally
negative side of bioliquids is that they have made some of the native tribes vanish in
Indonesia. When large plantations are established, people spread around and tribes
are scattered all over the island.
Another minus for bioliquids is the cultural biodiversity loss, which means that when
palm trees are grown, all other forest is cut down, which of course creates loss of
biodiversity in plants but also loss of cultural diversity among local people. There are
plants that are culturally very important for indigenous peoples. They will stop
growing the culturally important plants because they need the money attainable from
growing palm trees.
It has been predicted that by year 2020 the major oil fields will be drying up and
there will be much more demand for biofuels. Although bioliquids are now more
expensive than the fossil fuels, this situation may turn into reverse then. However,
the growing bioliquid business may endanger other biofuel businesses, such as
biogas and biomass production.
Economically bioliquids are, in fact, at present sustainable for the oil companies
because of their much larger production margins compared to fossil fuels.
Furthermore, current bioliquid research is derived from basic fossil fuel and diesel
research. These fuels have simply been improved to be more environmentally
sustainable. But as mentioned earlier, bioliquids, particularly those made of palm oil,
do not necessarily have such a long life span due to the fact they have many
environmentally and socio-culturally malignant impacts. And they will not have
economically such a good long-term effect because they are not as environmentally
friendly as other options.