With gasoline prices rising higher and higher, the development of biofuels seems the best solution for the future. Biofuels are actually made of any type of matter coming from plants and animals. We use even today in the form of charcoal, wood and animal waste.
Biodiesel and ethanol represent liquid biofuels which are use today at a big scale. Ethanol comes from the fermentation and distillation of any material that contains sugar, while biodiesel is made by chemically altering the reaction between animal fats and vegetable oil with the help of alcohol.
The liquid biofuels produced today are actually “first generation biofuels” because they only use sugar, starch or oil. But most plants contain a lot of cellulose and lignin. To have a better result “second-generation biofuels” are being created to make use of these ingredients.
Of course there a lot of issues to be solved before we even talk about manufacturing lingo-cellulosic ethanol in huge quantities, but once we will perfect these technologies we will have a cleaner source of energy. Because they use waste products coming from cities, agriculture and forestry they will help us reduce the impact we have on our environment.