How are Biofuels Made?

Fuel From Plants!

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Adobe Stock/Ton Photographer4289

Is ethanol a biofuel? Learn how are biofuels made into different types of biofuels, from biodiesel to algae to other biofuels of the future.

Petroleum has been the transportation fuel of choice for more than a century now, but it’s not the only fuel that can run our cars and trucks. Some of the most promising replacements for oil come from organic biomass, including crops such as corn and soybeans. Those are the main sources for the most common types of biofuels in use today, ethanol, and biodiesel fuel.

Biofuels are attractive because they can be used in gasoline and diesel engines, but unlike oil, they’re renewable. Biofuels also help lower tailpipe emissions because they burn cleaner than petroleum fuels, with lower greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, biofuels are generally grown and produced domestically rather than shipped from halfway around the world. However, there are trade-offs. Within the limits of current technology, biofuels can be costly and energy-intensive to produce. Another major knock against biofuels is that using potential food crops for fuel can reduce availability and raise prices of those crops. How successful biofuels will be in the future will depend on how well researchers are able to overcome these obstacles, and how wise we are in choosing government policies that give us the best results.

Though biofuels can be used in their pure form, they are generally used as a blend to stretch other fuels. Ethanol is blended with gasoline, and biodiesel is blended with petroleum diesel. Whether you’re aware of it or not, you probably have some biofuel in your gas tank right now. Most gasoline we pump today is E10 — 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline.

The federal government is also working to increase the use of biofuels: Under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, the volume of required biofuel was increased from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons by 2022. Recently, there has been a push for the standard use of a higher, 15 percent ethanol blend, or E15, but there are questions about compatibility with all vehicles.

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