Biofuel is derived from biomass recently living organisms or their metabolic byproducts, such as manure from cows.
It is a renewable energy source, unlike other natural resources such as petroleum, coal, and nuclear fuels. Like coal and petroleum, biomass is a form of stored solar energy. The energy of the sun is captured through the process of photosynthesis in growing plants.
Agricultural products specifically grown for use as biofuels include corn and soybeans, flaxseed and rapeseed, primarily in Europe; sugar cane in Brazil; palm oil in South-East Asia; and jatropha (though not an agricultural product) in India.
Biodegradable outputs from industry, agriculture, forestry and households can be used; examples include straw, timber, manure, rice husks, sewage, biodegradable waste, and food leftovers. They are converted to biogas through anaerobic digestion. Biomass used as fuel often consists of underutilized types, like chaff and animal waste. The quality of timber or grassy biomass does not have a direct impact on its value as an energy-source........
Biofuels are currently significantly less carbon neutral than other forms of Renewable Energy due to the high use of fossil fuels in the production of biofuels. The combustion of biofuels produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The carbon in biofuels is often taken to have been recently extracted from atmospheric carbon dioxide by plants as they have grown. The potential for biofuels to be considered to be "carbon neutral" depends upon the carbon that is emitted being reused by further plant growth. Clearly however, cutting down trees in forests that have grown for hundreds, or thousands of years for use as a biofuel, without the replacement of this biomass would not have a carbon neutral effect.
Many people believe that a way to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere is to use biofuels to replace non-renewable sources of energy. Dried compressed peat is also sometimes considered a biofuel. However, it does not meet the criteria of being a renewable biofuel. Though more recent than petroleum or coal, on the time scale of human industrialisation, peat is a fossil fuel and burning it does contribute to atmospheric CO2.
Much research is being done about the use of microalgae as an energy source, with applications for biodiesel, ethanol, methanol, methane, and even hydrogen.
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