What is Biofuel?

BIOFUEL

A biofuel is a fuel that contains energy and is derived from plants or biomass. It can be purely made of vegetal or animal fat or can also be a mixture between petroleum-based diesel oil and Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) that is based on vegetal oil or animal fat. In Indonesia, the most popular vegetal oil used for biofuel production is palm oil.

Types of biofuel:

Biodiesel/FAME

• A biofuel used for diesel engines that contains FAME produced from vegetal oil or animal fat through a process of esterification or transesterification.
• Can be 100 percent FAME, or known as B100 or a mixture of petroleum-based diesel oil and various percentage of FAME.
• The FAME percentage in the biodiesel determines its naming. B30 for example is a mixture of 30 percent FAME and 70 percent of petroleum-based diesel oil.

Green diesel/Biohidrokarbon diesel/Renewable diesel oil 

• Possesses a similar molecular structure as petroleum diesel but provides better diesel properties. Green diesel is produced by a hydrotreating of triglycerides in vegetable oils with hydrogen.
• Compared to petroleum-based diesel oil, green diesel has a higher cetane number, lower sulphure content, better oxidation stability and a clearer color.
• Green diesel is also known as hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), hydrogenation-derived renewable diesel (HDRD) or hydro processed esters and fatty acids (HEFA).
• Green diesel differs from biodiesel in the process of production. While biodiesel is processed through transesterification, green diesel is mad through fractional distillation, a process used in producing petroleum-based diesel oil.

Green-gasoline/Bioethanol

• A biofuel that is a mixture of chemical components that are almost similar to standard gasoline but come from plants, not petroleum.
• Bioethanol is an alcohol hat is produced through the fermentation of carbohydrates produced by plants such as sugar or starch

Bioavtur/Biojet/Jet biofuel

• An alternative fuel for airplane turbine engines produced through hydrogenesis by splitting vegetable oils component with hydrogen.
• Biojet fuel is made from vegetable oils, sugars, animal fats and even waste biomass, and can be used in existing aviation jet engines without modification.
• Compared to petroleum-based Avtur, bioavtur has the advantages of being more environmentally friendly, as well as has engine lubrication and cleaning properties. But it has a higher freezing point than regular avtur and also consumption is higher to produce the same amount of energy

 

Source: https://thepalmscribe.id/