US Green Living .com
Biofuel can be broadly classified as solid, liquid, or gas fuel, composed of biogas or derived from it. Biomass is also used for heating as well as power which is commonly referred as biomass fuel. This is also a practical alternative for fossil fuel. These fuels are now widely being used around the globe including Asia, Europe and United States. There are several ways to produce bio fuel including the manufacturing units utilizing plants or pant
derived items and any other carbon source. The use of biofuel has a positive effect to contribute to waste management and increase fuel security as well as manage the climate changes.
Types of Biofuel: Biofuel can be broadly classified into first generation and second generation fuels. First-generation type includes biofuels produced from starch, sugar, vegetable oil as well as from animal fats by means of conventional methods. The second type of biofuel is generated using the latest liquid technology. The most commonly available source of first generation type biofuel includes Vegetable oil, Methanol, Biodiesel,
Butanol, Biogas and Bio ethanol. Vegetable oil can be used to generate biodiesel which is well-suited when combined with the conventional diesel and used in the common diesel engines. Bioethanol is also commonly used as biofuel globally. This is produced by fermentation of wheat, sugar cane and other sugar derived materials. Though butanol is not widely used as a renewable energy source but it has potential benefit of directly replacing gasoline. Biogas is generated by the method of anaerobic absorption of organic items by anaerobes and used as a biofuel. Solid biofuels such as charcoal, dried excrement are also used as biofuels.
The second type of biofuels utilizes biomass to liquid methodology. Some of them include DMF, Biomethanol, BioHydrogen, HTU diesel, mixed alcohol and many more. BioHydrogen might be used in fuel cells to generate electricity. DME can be produced from syngas and commonly utilized in the compression ignition engines. In the recent research it has been found that wood diesel produced using wood chips also prove to be a useful biofuel.
Advantages of Biofuel: There are several benefits of using biofuels. These fuels like biodiesels are biodegradable, non-toxic and have minimal harmful emissions compared to the petroleum based diesels. These fuels form one of the sources of renewable energy source. In certain types the fuel has non-flammable liquid which when used in fueling vehicles proves to be much safer in preventing accident compared to petroleum diesels or gasoline.
Environmental advantages of Biofuel: Most of these biofuels support in controlling the global climate changes. Biofuel produce very minimal emissions and are not toxic in nature. Certain fuels of this type have the ability to reduce the greenhouse effect. This has the dual advantage of effective organic waste management as well as the source of renewable energy. Second generation type of fuels can reduce the pressure on the land by utilizing these organic wastes. Hence use of bio fuels would be another step toward healthy ecological balance in the world.
