What are they

Biofuels are fuels that produce energy from biological organisms like plants, trees, and sometimes animal fats. They are commonly meant to be used in internal combustion engines such as those designed to burn propane, gasoline, diesel or bunker. These biofuels are usually liquid but can be a gas or a solid.

Basically there are two general classes of biofuels in use today, alcohols and biodiesel, used in gasoline and diesel engines respectively. Mainly they are sold mixed in varying amounts with their fossil fuel equivalents but can be easily used as a pure fuel in themselves when available in large quantities.

There is constant confusion on the part of the public and often the media, between these two types of fuels. The alcohol fuel is usually ethanol or 'drinking' alcohol and is derived from carbohydrate, sugar or cellulose bearing crops such as corn, sugar cane, sorghum or grain crops. Biodiesel comes from oil bearing crops such as Jatropha curcas, African oil palm, castor bean and less commonly from animal fats. Although some plants, such as corn, have the potential of producing both alcohol and vegetable oil, none are yet being used to make both types of biofuels, but in any case corn is a food plant and its use as a source of fuel is discouraged.

Benefits of biofuels

• Its renewable energy
• Reduces the dependency on petroleum and foregoes huge expenditures that leave the country.
• The burning of biofuels produces emissions that are much less contaminating (it does not contain sulfur and it is biodegradable). This means big savings in public medical attention and fewer elements that contribute to global warming.
• Biodiesel can extend the life span of engines that are run with it, since it lubricates the engine parts efficiently.

Vegetable oil and biodiesel

Straight vegetable oil is a fuel that has not been converted to biodiesel, can be used as a motor fuel only in diesel motors that have had some adaptations made to it. Usually this means adding heating coils to the fuel line to avoid the thickening of vegetable oil when the environmental temperatures are low. Although there are many examples around the world of converted engines running on pure vegetable oil by far the greater majority only use biodiesel and biodiesel mixtures. Conversion kits, however, are available on the market.