Biofuel is any kind of fuel derived from biomass. Okay, so then what is biomass? Biomass is material that comes from living things—plants, animals, and their by-products.

Biofuels come from biomass that was alive recently. Fossil fuels also come from living things. But unlike biofuels, these living things died millions of years ago. Fossil fuels are not renewable resources. Once we run out of them, we cannot produce more of them quickly.

Lots of different products can be used to produce biofuel, such as corn, soybeans, rapeseed, wheat, sugar beet, sugar cane and palm oil. In addition, some biodegradable waste products can be used to make biofuels. These include straw, wood, manure, and food waste.

Each of these sources has its own benefits and drawbacks. The best sustainable energy policy is probably one that uses several different options instead of relying on just one.

There is a lot of interest in biofuels today, but biofuels aren’t new. Rudolf Diesel, the inventor of the diesel engine, planned to run his invention using peanut oil. Henry Ford originally designed his Model T to run on ethanol. However, when crude oil became cheaply available, people lost interest in using biofuels and started relying on fossil fuels instead.