Biofuels are fuels created from converting biomass to ethanol. Typically the process involves growing and then fermenting corn to create ethanol. Biofuels can be burned to provide the energy necessary to propel a car forward. The concept of running your car on corn is amazing! Ethanol, though has an inherent limitation when compared to gasoline fuel since ethanol has a lower energy density than gasoline. One advantage it does have is a higher compression ratio, which allows for a higher thermal efficiency.
Biofuels provide almost 2% of the entire world’s transportation fuel. Biofuels are especially popular in Brazil, where the ethanol is produced from the fermentation of sugars from wheat, corn, and sugar cane.
Another interesting biofuel is more like a biogas, and involves producing methane gas through using anaerobic digestion by bacteria. Farmers can even use this to produce methane from cow manure using an anaerobic digester.