iofuels are used globally. Biofuel industries are expanding in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The most common use for biofuels is automotive transport (for example E10 fuel).

Increased American and European demand has led to clearing land for Palm Oil plantations. Locations such as Indonesia are subject to deforestation and the accompanying displacement of indigenous peoples. In some areas use of pesticides for biofuel crops are disrupting clean water supplies.

Biofuel can be theoretically produced from any (biological) carbon source. The most common by far is photosynthetic plants that capture solar energy. Many different plants and plant-derived materials are used for biofuel manufacture.

The greatest technical challenge is to develop ways to convert biomass energy specifically to liquid fuels. To achieve this, the two most common strategies are:

To grow sugar crops (sugar cane, and sugar beet), or starch (corn/maize), and then use yeast fermentation to produce ethanol (ethyl alcohol).

To grow plants that (naturally) produce oils, such as algae, or jatropha. When these oils are heated, their viscosity is reduced, and they can be burned directly in a diesel engine. The oils can also be chemically processed to produce biodiese

Supporters of biofuels claim that a more viable solution is to increase political and industrial support for, and rapidity of, second-generation biofuel implementation from non food crops, including cellulosic biofuels. Second-generation biofuel production processes can use a variety of non food crops. These include waste biomass, the stalks of wheat, corn, wood, and special-energy-or-biomass crops

l, is a biofuel from algae. Algae are low-input/high-yield (30 times more energy per acre than land) feedstocks to produce biofuels and algae fuel are biodegradable.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofuel