The term biofuels usually refers to two liquid fuels, bioethanol and biodiesel, which are currently used mainly to power vehicles. Bioethanol is a form of alcohol, often mixed with petrol. Biodiesel is a specific fuel in its own right, although it too is mixed with other fuels. Both use large quantities of crops, which are grown to produce first generation biofuels. They are produced from biomass- living matter or waste from living matter. This includes crops grown for fuel, e.g. sugar cane, corn, maize, soybeans, oilseed rape, willow and waste oil- known as first generation biofuels.

                Within the next 10-20 years scientists hope the technology will be in place to enable them to produce ‘second generation biofuels’. These are produced using non-food fibrous plant cellulose material like trees/wood, grass, straw and other waste. These second generation biofuels could be produced by breaking down the cellulose in plant matter to produce ethanol. This will allow us to produce biofuels from a wider range of plant materials, often from parts of plants we do not or can not use at present. Unlike the increasing trend in first generation biofuels, much o this is waste material which is not specifically planted and grown to produce fuel.

                Biofuels are made by quite a few crops. Mainly sugar cane, maize or oil palms are used. Bioethanol is made by fermenting starch or sugar, it is usually mixed with petrol. Biodiesel is made from oily plants such as palm oil and soya bean. In the early days of the car, both Henry Ford and Rudolf Diesel designed engines to run on biofuels, but cheap crude from the Middle East killed the market.

                The world’s output of ethanol doubled between 2000 and 2005, while biodiesel quadrupled. In Brazil, the market leader, the sugarcane industry produces 20 billion litres of ethanol a year: most cars in Brazil now run on it. In the USA, production of maize-based ethanol has grown by a factor of five in the past decade and Bush’s energy security act of 2007 calls for a further sixfold increase by 2020. Biofuels are catching on in Europe too: under the EU’s Renewable Transport FuEL Obligation, which comes into force on 15 April, oil companies and fuel suppliers must ensure that biofuels account for at least 2.5% of fuel in the pumps, rising to 5% by 2010 and 10% by 2020.