Biofuels

What are biofuels?

Biofuel is a solid, liquid or gas fuel derived from organic material, typically plants. Unlike fossil fuels which come from finite and ancient deposits of dead organic material, biofuels typically use plants grown and harvested specifically for conversion to fuel. Waste food oils are also biofuels have the added advantage of reusing cooking waste as an energy source. Waste products of the forestry industry also generate biofuels as described below.

Woody Biomass

What is it? Typically the tops of hardwood and softwood trees discarded by logging operations which are is processed into wood chips that power specially designed furnaces.

How Much is There?
• Every year about two million tons of wood chips from private Adirondack lands go into the low-grade wood market as pulp or biofuel.
• An additional million tons of woody biomass harvested from private Adirondack forests remain available for wood-energy use.

Woody Biomass into Fuel
With a grant from the U.S. Forest Service, DEC is studying ways to convert that material into a fuel. A one-year project started in 2007 is evaluating whether there are enough potential users in and around the Adirondack Park to make woody biomass a viable energy source.

More about Biofuels:

Biodiesel - Biodiesel is a fuel made from renewal resources such as soybean oil, animal fats, or waste vegetable oils.