Biofuel

Biofuel can be broadly defined as solid, liquid, or gas fuel derived from recently dead biological material.This distinguishes it from fossil fuels, which are derived from long dead biological material. Biofuel can be theoretically produced from any (biological) carbon source, though the most common by far is photosynthetic plants. Many different plants and plant-derived materials are used for biofuel manufacture. Biofuels are used globally, most commonly to power vehicles and cooking stoves. Biofuel industries are expanding in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Biofuels offer the possibility of producing energy without a net increase of carbon into the atmosphere because the plants used in to produce the fuel have removed CO2 from the atmosphere, unlike fossil fuels which return carbon which was stored beneath the surface for millions of years into the air. Biofuel is therefore more nearly carbon neutral and less likely increase atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (though doubts have been raised as to whether this benefit can be achieved in practice, see below). The use of biofuels also reduces dependence on petroleum and enhances energy security.

Also known as agrofuel, these fuels are mainly derived from biomass or bio waste. These fuels can be used for any purposes, but the main use for which they have to be brought is in the transportation sector. Most of the vehicles require fuels which provide high power and are dense so that storage is easier. These engines require fuels that are clean and are in the liquid form.

The most important advantage of using liquid as fuel is that they can be easily pumped and can also be handled easily. This is the main reason why almost all the vehicles use liquid form of fuels for combustion purpose. For other forms of non transportation applications there are other alternative solid biomass fuel like wood. These non transportation applications can bring into use these solid biomass fuels as they can easily bear the low power density of external combustion. Wood has been brought into use since a very long period and is one of the major contributors of global warming.

Biofuels are the best way of reducing the emission of the greenhouse gases. They can also be looked upon as a way of energy security which stands as an alternative of fossil fuels that are limited in availability. Today, the use of biofuels has expanded throughout the globe. Some of the major producers and users of biogases are Asia, Europe and America. Theoretically, biofuel can be easily produced through any carbon source; making the photosynthetic plants the most commonly used material for production. Almost all types of materials derived from the plants are used for manufacturing biogas. One of the greatest problems that is being faced by the researchers in the field is how to covert the biomass energy into the liquid fuel.

There are two methods currently brought into use to solve the above problem. In the first one, sugar crops or starch are grown and through the process of fermentation, ethanol is produced. In the second method, plants are grown that naturally produce oil like jatropha and algae. These oils are heated to reduce their viscosity after which they are directly used as fuel for diesel engines. This oil can be further treated to produce biodiesel which can be used for various purposes. Most of the biofuels are derived from biomass or bio waste. Biomass can be termed as material which is derived from recently living organism. Most of the biomass is obtained from plants and animals and also include their by products. The most important feature of biomass is that they are renewable sources of energy unlike other natural resources like coal, petroleum and even nuclear fuel. Some of the agricultural products that are specially grown for the production of biofuels are switchgrass, soybeans and corn in United States. Brazil produces sugar cane, Europe produces sugar beet and wheat while, China produces cassava and sorghum, south-east Asia produces miscanthus and palm oil while India produces jatropha.

Directory of resourses related to the process of converting organic-based matter into burnable fuel as a replacement for fossil fuel.
Considering the fuel costs involved in farming, is not the concept of biofuels somewhat contradictory? Yes, the final product may have chemically derived from a plant-based origin, but how much "fossil" fuel is consumed in the process of creating each gallon of biofuel?
For this reason, programs that recycle/convert already existing pre-cursors into fuel seem the most plausible, such as griesel or biomass.

There are two common strategies of producing biofuels. One is to grow crops high in either sugar (sugar cane, sugar beet, and sweet sorghum) or starch (corn/maize), and then use yeast fermentation to produce ethyl alcohol (ethanol). The second is to grow plants that contain high amounts of vegetable oil, such as oil palm, soybean, algae, or jatropha. When these oils are heated, their viscosity is reduced, and they can be burned directly in a diesel engine, or the oils can be chemically processed to produce fuels such as biodiesel. Wood and its byproducts can also be converted into biofuels such as woodgas, methanol or ethanol fuel. It is also possible to make cellulosic ethanol from non-edible plant parts, but this can be difficult to accomplish economically.

Biofuels are discussed as having significant roles in a variety of international issues, including: mitigation of carbon emissions levels and oil prices, the "food vs fuel" debate, deforestation and soil erosion, impact on water resources, and energy balance and efficiency.
Almost all of the arable land on Earth would need to be covered with the fastest-growing known energy crops, such as switchgrass, to produce the amount of energy currently consumed from fossil fuels annually