The biofuels that people are mainly familiar with today are the ones that are made from food crops, such as corn. The biggest debate regarding this, among those going green, is that too much food is being devoted to fuel, when it needs to be allocated for its original purpose, which is to feed humans or animals. While eating is one of the few things we must do to survive, in this day and age, having fuel is almost as integral. Therefore, a balance must be created so that there are enough resources for both the generation of food and fuel.
There are currently three generations of biofuels, and within the first generation, bioalcohol, biodiesel, and biogas are utilized. Bioalcohol is created by the fermentation of sugars or starches, and plants which are high in these are used to make this type of biofuel. Biodiesel is used for diesel engines, and can be made from heated vegetable oil. Biogas is created when organic materials biodegrade in the absence of oxygen.
While all of the above biofuels are effective, the bottom line is they still use food that could possibly be put to better use. Second generation biofuels are created from non edible food crops, as well as the stalks of edible foods. Cellulosic fuels are more difficult to make on a large scale, which is one of their primary drawbacks.
The third generation is algae biofuel. Algae requires little energy to grow yet can output more biofuel than any land crop. Algae is so promising that it may even be a method of completely replacing petroleum. Like cellulose, there have been problems extracting the essential oil from algae, and new techniques for extraction are consistently being researched.
An emerging, new type of biofuel that may turn out to be the fourth generation is fuel produced from microorganisms. If this project is successful, it could result in our being able to create all the fuel we will ever need.
Justin Kander helps run a green blog dedicated to helping people go green.
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