Biofuel

What is a biofuel? A Biofuel is a fuel that is sourced from non fossilised organisms or from by products of these organisms. For example Biodiesel can be made from vegetable oils or animal fats. Cattle or horse manure is another biofuel and it is the side product of recently living organisms.

Petrol, oil and coal are not biofuels as they are fossilised. They are not sustainable. Biofuels on the other hand are sustainable energy sources as they can have a continuous growth / burn / growth / burn cycle.

What can biofuels give us that fossil fuels cannot?

Biofuels have an enormous environmental benefit, they can help reduce the levels of toxins in our air and water. They can reduce the advance of global warming and can help reduce fuel needs by providing more efficient models of energy creation.

When a biofuel is burnt to release the energy contained within the biomass, the carbon that is released has recently been taken from the atmosphere by the plants that the biofuel derived from. This is because plants take in carbon dioxide in the process of photosynthesis to enable them to grow. The effect of this is that biofuels are carbon neutral, i.e. they release the same amount of carbon when burnt as the plants that the biofuel derived from took in when they grew.

Biofuels can also benefit the user through reduced costs, cheap fuel has long been a goal of man. Biofuels can also provide us with a sustainable form of energy. This is great news for future generations but also effects us today as dwindling supplies of oil and gas force prices upwards meaning that we pay more for our gas and petroleum as well as fossil fuel generated electricity.

Biofuels can easily be made at home and by local communities and farming groups. This can again make biofuels a cheap alternative to fossil fuels and can help to strengthen local communities both socially and economically.

The two major biofuels that are already available and being used on a large scale are biodiesel and bioethanol (or Ethanol fuel). These fuels are capable of running many different makes and models of existing motor vehicles.

The Increasing importance of Biofuels

The worlds energy demand continues to increase as we use more and more machines in our day to day lives. New high level energy users such as China and India have emerged placing a higher demand on the already short supplies of fossil fuel energy.

How we supply our energy needs and with what fuels is becoming more and more of an issue, both economically and environmentally.

Recently the US government recognised the need to be more self sufficient in its energy supplies and reduce its 'addiction' to foreign oil.

The European Union has set targets for biofuels to account for 5.75% of all fuel used in Europe by 2010.