Biofuels

Biofuels are one of the many different types of products that can be made in biorefineries. There is a great need for society to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels (from, for example, coal or natural gas) in order to reduce the quantity of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, and the use of biofuels is one opportunity to do so. Producing biofuels can be the main process of a biorefinery, for example the production of different alcohols by fermentation of sugars from the biobased raw material. However, it is often more profitable to produce high value products from a small fraction of the raw material instead. It is possible to allow a smaller portion of the biomass, usually those carbohydrates which are difficult to break down, to be used for the production of biofuels, whilst the main production consists of more valuable products. A common alternative to this is the production of biogas through biodegradation. The biogas can be collected and purified into methane, which can then be used, for example, as fuel for vehicles.