Biofuel & Biofuel technology
What is a Biofuel? - Biofuels are Fuels that are made from living things or the waste that is produced from them.
The List of Biofuels can be long, but a few examples can include:
- · wood chippings, wood or straw
- · pellets or liquids made from wood
- · biogas (methane) from animals' excrement
- · ethanol, diesel or other liquid fuels made from processing plant material or waste oil this can also include vegetable oil.
In recent years, the term "biofuel" has come to mean the last category - ethanol and diesel, made from crops including corn, sugarcane and rapeseed.
Bio-ethanol, an alcohol, is usually mixed with petrol, while biodiesel is either used on its own or in a mixture.
In the early years motoring pioneers like Henry Ford and Rudolph Diesel designed cars and engines to run on biofuels. Before World War II, the UK and Germany both sold biofuels mixed with petrol or diesel made from crude oil; the availability of cheap oil later ensured market dominance.
Ethanol for fuel is made through fermentation, the same process which produces it in wine and beer. Biodiesel is made through a variety of chemical processes.
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