A
biofuel is a
fuel that is produced through contemporary processes from biomass, rather than a
fuel produced by the very slow geological processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. Since
biomass technically can be used as a
fuel directly (e.g. wood logs), some people use the terms
biomass and
biofuel interchangeably. More often than not, however, the word
biomass simply denotes the biological raw material the
fuel is made of, or some form of thermally/chemically altered solid end product, like torrefied pellets or briquettes. The word
biofuel is usually reserved for liquid or gaseous fuels, used for transportation. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) follows this naming practice. If the
biomass used in the production of
biofuel can regrow quickly, the
fuel is generally considered to be a form of renewable energy.
Relevant Topics in Medical Sciences