What is biofuel?

The continuous process of adopting measures in favor of the environment leads to the emergence of new products that try to alleviate these problems. This time we are going to review the concept of biofuel.

The term biofuel or biofuel is used to define the mixture of organic substances that serves as a useful fuel for internal combustion engines. This matter comes from biomass (used as an energy source).

To obtain this material, agricultural species such as corn or cassava, and plants such as soy, sunflower and palm trees can be used. Thus, fuels of biological origin can replace part of the fuel consumption with origin in traditional fossil fuels (oil or coal).

The use of this type of material reduces the pollution caused by carbon dioxide (a harmful gas according to the EU) that is expelled into the atmosphere, seriously affecting the ecosystem and, to a great extent, the ozone layer. Therefore, whenever possible it is advisable to use this type of fuel to try to reduce the amount of harmful gases that are expelled into the environment.

Even so, biocomponents must be mixed with traditional fuels in small quantities, 5 or 10%, reducing the emission of these greenhouse gases. In the case of Europe, the law requires suppliers to mix biofuels to certain levels.

It should be noted that the impact that this type of fuel will have in the future must be properly evaluated. There are more and more companies aware of it; not only fuel supplier companies, but also companies that use this fuel in the manufacturing process of their products (this is the case of industrial or manufacturing companies, which need fuel to develop their production processes).

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