BIOFUELS

Book excerpt: Today the world is facing three critical problems: (i) High fuel prices, (ii) Climatic changes (iii) Air pollution. Currently there are several important problems to be resolved worldwide: (1) high need for energy, (2) high depletion of non-renewable energy resources and (3) high local and global environmental pollution. This book “Biofuels - A Promising alternate for next generation fuels” deals with the production of biofuels. The biggest difference between biofuels and petroleum feedstock is oxygen content. Biofuels have oxygen levels from 10% to 45% while petroleum has essentially none making the chemical properties of biofuels very different from petroleum. Oxygenates are just pre-used hydrocarbons having a structure that provides a reasonable antiknock value. Most traditional biofuels, such as ethanol from corn, wheat, or sugar beets, and biodiesel from oil seeds, are produced from classic agricultural food crops that require high-quality agricultural land for growth. The term biofuel is referred to as liquid or gaseous fuels for the transport sector that are predominantly produced from biomass. There are several reasons for biofuels to be considered as relevant technologies by both developing and industrialized countries. They include energy security reasons, environmental concerns, foreign exchange savings, and socioeconomic issues related to the rural sector. Biomass can be converted to biofuels through various methods like chemical, such as biomethanol and biodiesel production, thermochemical, such as bio-oil, bio-syngas, biohydrogen production, and biochemical, such as bioethanol, biogas, biodiesel and biohydrogen production.