What are biofuels?

The term biofuel refers to liquid, gas and solid fuels that are predominantly produced from biomass. The production of biofuels may ignite concerns about security, the environment, trading, and socioeconomic issues related to the rural sector. Biofuels include bioethanol, biomethanol, vegetable oils, biodiesel, biogas, bio-synthetic gas (bio-syngas), bio-oil, bio­char (charcoal created by biomass pyrolysis), Fischer-Tropsch liquids and biohydrogen. Biogas and bio-oil are primary products, the preliminary processing of which is almost reduced to collecting the raw material. Most traditional biofuels (such as ethanol from corn, wheat, or sugar beets and biodiesel from oil seeds) are produced from classic agricultural food crops that require high-quality agricultural land for growth. The biofuel economy will grow rapidly during the 21st century (Demirbas, 2008a).