When we convert organic matter into fuel, it is called bio fuels. These fuels are an alternative energy source to the fossil fuels that we currently depend upon. What is included in the biofuels umbrella is its aegis ethanol and some that has been derived from plants such as sugar cane, vegetable and corn oils. However, not all ethanol products are designed to be used as a kind of gasoline. As stated by the International Energy Agency (IEA), although presently, only two percent of the world’s usable gasoline is composed of ethanol, by 2025 it would rise up to the figure of 10 percent and even up to 30 percent by 2050.

There is still a long way to go in making these biofuels economically viable according to research carried out by Oregon State University. We have yet to develop bio-fuels that are as energy efficient as gasoline made from petroleum. We measure the efficiency of any energy by how much we obtain from it in relation to how much was used to create it. Despite our best efforts, fuel sources always require a greater input than they are able to supply back. While it is true that the end product energy is what’s more valuable for our needs and that the input energy is just the effort it takes to produce the end-product, taking into consideration that what truly matters is the conversion, is important. To illustrate this the energy efficiency of ethanol is only twenty percent, biodiesel is sixty nine percent whereas gasoline is seventy five percent. Although these studies did provide proof of something very interesting: Ethanol derived from Cellulose is 85% efficient which as actually higher than nuclear energy.

Even investors are beginning to see the advantage and the Chicago Stock Exchange is investing heavily in ‘grain’ futures as it can see the profit potential in this area. In fact it is now believed among scientific circles that by 2030, around thirty percent of the world’s fuel used for transport will be supplied by these fuels. If governments start to promote the use of these eco-friendly fuels more then some analysts believe the use of diesel and gasoline will reduce accordingly. For more info about diesel vs gas vehicles or to compare gas vs diesel.

Take Brazil for example: they have become the foremost producer worldwide of ethanol’s made from sugar. It produces approximately three and a half billion gallons of ethanol per year. Next to Brazil, the United States, which is the world’s greatest oil-guzzler, is now one of the largest producer of bio fuels. This figure far exceeds the amount produced by the European Union annually with just four million tonnes. Now eighty percent of Europe’s biodiesel comes from rapeseed oil with the remaining twenty percent from soybean and a little from palm oil.