Biofuels Handbook

Petroleum-based fuels are well-established products that have served industry and consumers for more than one hundred years. However petroleum, once considered inexhaustible, is now being depleted at a rapid rate. As the amount of available petroleum decreases, the need for alternative technologies to produce liquid fuels that could potentially help prolong the liquid fuels culture and mitigate the forthcoming effects of the shortage of transportation fuels is being sought. The dynamics are now coming into place for the establishment of a synthetic fuels industry; the processes for recovery of raw materials and processing options have to change to increase the efficiency of oil production and it is up to various levels of government not only to promote the establishment of such an industry but to recognise the need for available and variable technology.