Types of Biofuel

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The world at present is facing a crisis of energy shortage. The steady supply of energy from petroleum for the past one and a half century have already passed its peak and is in an exponential decline. The key to resolving the crisis and ensuring a sustainable future is in the development and usage of renewable energy. Biofuel is a renewable source of energy that is derived from organic matter and has a great potential to replace fossil fuel as an alternative source of energy. Human beings have been using biofuels at a very early time in the form of firewood to cook and keep warm, but research and development has to be carried out in order to produce biofuels in forms that are more suitable for the current energy demand and the diminishing supply of petroleum and natural gas has speed up the study to biofuel productions. Many ongoing researches are being carried out to find ways to produce biofuel economically and efficiently, making its usage more feasible as a replacement of current non-renewable energy sources. In general, biofuels are classified into three main categories which are liquid fuel, biogas and solid biomass (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).
The first major type of biofuel is liquid fuel. This type of fuel is normally used in internal combustion engines to convert the chemical energy in the fuel to mechanical energy that is more useful. Liquid fuel biofuels are largely used by the transportation sector due to its high energy density and its adaptability to be used in current transportation technologies without requiring expensive modifications and support infrastructure (Jegannathan, Chan & Ravindra, 2011). Liquid fuel is further sub-divided into biodiesel and bioethanol.
Biodiesel is used in compression igni...

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...nsen (Ed.), Renewable energy (pp. 359-369). London, UK: Earthscan.
John, G. I. (2001). Biomethane. Indiana, USA: Xlibris.
Jong, W. D. (2009). Sustainable hydrogen production by thermochemical biomass processing. In R. B. Gupta (Ed.) Hydrogen fuel: Production, transport, and storage (pp. 185-226). Florida, USA: CRC Press.
Nordic Council of Ministers. (2006). Biological waste treatment in Norway and Sweden: What works well and what can be improved? Copenhagen, Denmark: Nordic Council of Ministers.
Oliveria, M. D. D. (2008). Sugarcane and ethanol production and carbon dioxide balances. In D. Pimentel (Ed.), Biofuels, solar and wind as renewable energy systems (pp. 215-230). New York, USA: Springer.
Tester, J. W., Drake, E. M., Driscoll, M. J., Golay, M. W., & Peters, W. A. (2012). Sustainable energy: Choosing among options (2nd ed.). Massachusetts, USA: MIT Press.

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