Biofuel is defined as solid, liquid or gaseous fuel obtained from relatively recently lifeless or living biological material and is different from fossil fuels, which are derived from long dead biological material. Also, various plants and plant-derived materials are used for biofuel manufacturing.

Biofuels are most commonly used to power vehicles, heat homes, and for cooking. Recent technology developed at Los Alamos National Lab even allows for the conversion of pollution into renewable bio fuel.   Agrifuels are biofuels which are produced from specific crops, rather than from waste processes such as landfill off-gassing or recycled vegetable oil.

There are two common strategies of producing liquid and gaseous agrofuels. One is to grow crops high in sugar (sugar cane, sugar beet, and sweet sorghum) or starch (corn/maize), and then use yeast fermentation to produce ethyl alcohol (ethanol). The second is to grow plants that contain high amounts of vegetable oil, such as oil palm, soybean, algae, jatropha, or pongamia pinnata. When these oils are heated, their viscosity is reduced, and they can be burned directly in a diesel engine, or they can be chemically processed to produce fuels like biodiesel. Wood and its byproducts can also be made into biofuels such as woodgas, methanol or ethanol fuel.

David Gardels, Husch Blackwell Sanders, LLP, spoke at the 2009 Kansas Wind and Renewable Energy Conference recently.  His topic was Renewable Fuels Status.  Currently there are 179 Ethanol Plants in the US. Half of the gasonline consumed in this country has some amount of ethanol added.