Biofuels
- Biofuels are fuels manufactured from biomass.
- Biomass resources are the biodegradable fraction of products, wastes, and residues from agriculture, forestry andrelated industries as well as the biodegradable fraction of industrial and municipal wastes.
| BIOFUELS | ||
| GENERATION | CHARACTERISTICS | REMARKS |
| FIRST | Produced from food crops like maize, corn, sugar cane, rapeseed, palm, and soybean into ethanol and biodiesel, using a similar process to that used in beer and wine-making. | Impose significant costs on food security by demanding a share of staple crops, traditionally used solely for food and feed. Resulting in a conflict between fuel and food security. At the same time, lift the price of staple crops |
| SECOND | Produced from non-food crops and organic agricultural waste, which contain cellulose. | Grasses like switchgrass, non-edible oil seeds like Jatropha, castor seed can be transformed into biofuels. |
| THIRD | Derived from algae. Also known as green hydrocarbons | The list of fuels that can be derived from algae includes: Bio-diesel, Ethanol, and Jet-fuel. |
| FOURTH | Produce sustainable energy as well as capture and store CO2 by converting biomass materials, which have absorbed CO2while growing, into fuel. | At all stages of production, the CO2 is captured using various processes.Rather than simply being carbon neutral, the fourth generation biofuel production is carbon negative, since it ‘locks’ away more carbon than it produces and also lowers CO2 emissions by substituting fossil fuels. |
Key Advantages of Biofuel
- Renewable Energy source.
- Non-toxic & Biodegradable.
- Contains no sulfur that causes acid rain.
- Environment friendly-less emissions.
- Has rural employment potential.