World Biofuel day celebrated on 10 August

• The Day is dedicated to raise awareness regarding unconventional sources of fuels that could work as alternatives to fossil fuels.
• Biofuels are renewable, biodegradable, sustainable sources of energy.
• With the help of biofuels, one can decrease the import dependency on crude oil, and welcome a cleaner setting.

Biofuel

• A biofuel is any source of energy that is extracted from biological material such as agricultural wastes, crops, trees or grass.
• Biofuel can be produced from any source of carbon that can be rejuvenated rapidly, like plants.
• Biofuels are known to contain no sulfur and produce low carbon monoxide and toxic emissions, as compared to conventional fossil fuels.

World Biofuel day: History

• This day honors the research experiments by Sir Rudolf Diesel who ran an engine with peanut oil in the year 1893.
• His research experiment had predicted that vegetable oil is going to replace fossil fuels in the next century to fuel different mechanical engines.
• It is to commemorate this experiment that the day is celebrated.
• The Day is being observed by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas since 2015.
• On this day government and private organisations come together to generate consciousness about the significance of non-fossil fuels as a different form of energy resource.

Important Biofuel categories in India

1. Bioethanol : Ethanol produced from biomass, starch containing materials and cellulosic materials
2. Biodiesel : Produced from non-edible vegetable oils, acid oil, used cooking oil or animal fat and bio-oil;
3. Drop-in fuels : Any liquid fuel produced from Biomass, agri-residues, wastes such as Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW), Plastic wastes, Industrial wastes etc .
4. Bio-CNG : Purified form of bio-Gas whose composition & energy potential is similar to that of fossil based natural gas.