biofuels

• Biofuel


  A fuel that's made from recently living organisms
• Fossil fuels are also made from living organisms, but those organisms lived millions of years ago and were converted to fuel by a very different process
• Biofuels


  • Generally come from plants or algae
  • These organisms can photosynthesize and take up the sun's energy which can then be released later when we burn them for fuels
  • We can also use animal waste but this is often done at a much smaller scale
• Burning biofuels releases carbon dioxide


  Biofuels are normally considered carbon neutral because they took up that carbon dioxide while they were growing
• Biofuels


  • They are effectively a renewable resource
  • They are relatively cheap to make
  • They are easy to transport and we can mix them with fossil fuels like petrol
• Using biofuels


  We can benefit from them without having to get new cars like we would if we wanted to use the electricity generated by solar or wind
• Growing biofuel plants


  It often involves converting natural land, which could involve things like cutting down forests, releasing tons of CO2 even before the first crop of biofuels
• Harvesting, processing, and transporting biofuels

  It requires energy, which probably means more CO2 being released overall
• It is hard to tell how good biofuels really are, they are definitely not as good as we first thought
• When used properly, biofuels can be a great substitute for fossil fuels
• With all renewable energy resources, it's not all or nothing, we can choose to use biofuels where it does make sense and use something else where it doesn't