What different type of biofuels are there?
Vegetable Oil Biofuel
Vegetable oil can be used in many old diesel engines as long as the climate is warm, but it isn’t suitable for modern diesel or petrol engines.
There are a number of cars out there that have been converted by enthusiasts to run on chip fat, although we don’t think it’s the easiest fuel to work with…
Biodiesel Biofuel
Biodiesel is one of the most common biofuels that is in wide circulation across Europe. Many new diesel engines made in Europe are designed to run on pure biodiesel or a mix of biodiesel and mineral diesel (standard diesel).
It is generally produced by mixing a biomass with sodium hydroxide and methanol, which causes a chemical reaction and produces biodiesel. A number of oil companies produce biodiesel/mineral diesel mixes, and more recently Audi won the 2006 and 2007 Le Mans race using diesel R10 race cars running on a biodiesel/mineral diesel mix.
Whilst it burns cleaner than standard fuels it isn’t pollution-free and needs to be mixed with standard fuels for some car models.
Biogas Biofuel
Biogas is produced when waste materials are fed into anaerobic digesters, making a burnable fuel. The residue or the by-product from the production of the biogas can be used as manure or fertilizer for agricultural use.
Biogas can be used as a fuel for central heating and also for vehicles like trains and cars. Biogas is in use in a number of different countries, like Sweden, Switzerland, Germany and India (where home production is on a very wide scale).
Bioalcohols Biofuel (e.g. Ethanol)
Bioalcohols are created by using micro organisms and enzymes to break down sugar cane and starch. The most common bioalcohol is ethanol, which is fairly widely used in vehicles as it can be used as a direct replacement in some petrol engines.
Ethanol is often mixed with petrol in some countries to keep fuel costs down, and ethanol burns a little cleaner than standard petrol. Ethanol is popular way to boost power in performance cars as efficiency can be increased, along with the engine’s power output.
Ethanol is one of the fuels being blamed for the global food price increase as farmers switch to the more lucrative crops. Butanol and propanol can also be produced from starch and sugar cane, and these also burn cleaner than regular petrol fuels but are less widely applied.
Synthesis Gas (Syngas) Biofuel
Syngas is a gas mixture made up of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The syngas is produced using a carbon-based fuel which is converted into gases like carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which can be used as an intermediary to create biofuels that can be mixed with diesel and can be used in conventional vehicles.
Shell have been a pioneer in the use of syngas as an intermediary to produce liquid fuels (called gas to liquid conversion) that are mixed with diesel to produce biodiesel (which can be used in many modern diesel engines), and they are close to opening the world’s largest biodiesel refinery in Qatar.
Syngas and the liquid fuels that can be created still pollute but at a slightly lower level than standard fuels. They also reduce wear and tear in engines as well as increase an engine’s fuel efficiency.
