
Costa Pinto production plant	Arable power station UK

Biofuels

The term biofuels simply refers to the use of biomass material as a fuel source. Biofuels are created from dead biological material (this does not include fossil fuels even though these are also derived from biological material).

The term agrofuels refers to the deliberate farming of crops in order to produce biofuels. Agrofuel crops are grown and harvested to extract either ethynol or biodiesel:

Plants with a high sugar content go through a fermentation process to produce ethanol (ethyl alcohol).
Plants with high amounts of vegetable oil are processed to produce fuels such as biodiesel.

Traditional crops such as oilseed rape and wheat are grown to be processed for their energy content. However there are other crops which maximise the yield of to turn over land to unusual grasses, with a high yield, or short-rotation willow-coppice, and some forestry products.

Some of the crops that are grown for bioenergy and biofuels include: maize, rapeseed, sugar cane, palm oil and jatropha.

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