Biofuels production from biomass

Biomass is the most abundant, renewable unexplored source of energy. It is organic in nature, basically comprising of cellulosic and hemicellulosic matter found in the biodegradable material from energy crops, agricultural and forest wastes, industrial, consumer and animal wastes. Energy reach compounds, otherwise known as biofuels, are prepared from the biomass by three important processes; physical, biological and thermo-chemical process.

Biofuels are prepared in three forms that are solid, liquid and gaseous. Since these biofuels are the products from the biomass or the biological wastes as mentioned above, therefore, biofuels draws credits for re-circulation of carbon to the atmosphere, rather adding more of Green House Gas (GHG). This also contains very less amount of sulphur compounds, so SOx pollution is negligible. It is also seen, that nitrogen content in biofuels compared to fossil fuels is less to 50%, resulting low NOx release to atmosphere. These are the basic reasons why this plays an advantageous role than the fossil fuels to bring back a healthy environment by restricting the Green House Effect, which is of great concern.

Furthermore, in today’s world, alternative fuels are needed more than ever. Conventional fuels, such as coal, natural gas, and fossil fuel, are constantly being depleted; however, the world’s dependency on these fuels is still growing. Additionally, the price on foreign fuels is ever increasing. For these reasons, we are pursuing alternative fuel sources to lessen the dependency on conventional fuels in Nigeria. One alternative fuel is biofuel with it zero emission of CO2.