What are Biofuels?

Written By Teacher: Teresa Pettitt-Kenney

Hi there! My name is Teresa and I just finished my Bachelor's degree in Environmental Science and am excited to pursue environmental education in the future! I am extremely passionate about climate change, equitable climate action, and how education can work to address these issues. 

Students must be increasingly vigilant when it comes to proposed climate solutions, as greenwashing has become more pervasive. Biofuel is an innovative solution for lowering CO2 in our atmosphere, but understanding the advances and setbacks in implementing this new technology can be complex. Explore the positives and negatives of this potential solution through videos and infographics.  Have students research and decide whether or not they believe biofuels are a viable solution in the fight against climate change.

Written By: MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative

The MIT Climate Change Engagement Program, a part of MIT Climate HQ, provides the public with nonpartisan, easy-to-understand, and scientifically-grounded information on climate change and its solutions.

Biofuel is any liquid fuel made from “biomass”—that is, plants and other biological matter like animal waste and leftover cooking fat. Biofuels can be used as replacements for petroleum-based fuels like gasoline and diesel.

As we search for fuels that won’t contribute to the greenhouse effect and climate change, biofuels are a promising option because the carbon dioxide (CO2) they emit is recycled through the atmosphere. When the plants used to make biofuels grow, they absorb CO2 from the air, and it’s that same CO2 that goes back into the atmosphere when the fuels are burned. In theory, biofuels can be a “carbon-neutral” or even “carbon-negative” way to power cars, trucks and planes, meaning they take at least as much CO2 out of the atmosphere as they put back in.

A major promise of biofuels is that they can lower overall CO2 emissions without changing a lot of our infrastructure. They can work with existing vehicles, and they can be mass-produced from biomass in the same way as other biotechnology products, like chemicals and pharmaceuticals, which are already made on a large scale. In the future, we may also be able to move large amounts of biofuels through existing pipelines.