Biofuels are fuels created by a targeted production or preparation from biomass and biological waste. They represent a way of using biomass. The material for the production of the contemporary fuels of the first generation is biomass which is used also in food industry and feed production. The biofuel of the first generation is bioethanol manufactured from corn, sugar beet, sugar cane, maize, starch, plant waste by fermentation and refining, rapeseed oil methylester (RME) manufactured from pressed rape plant by esterification, or rapeseed oil ethylester as its modified version, then fatty acid methylester (FAME) manufactured from pressed oil plants (palm oil, sunflower oil etc.) or biobutanol manufactured by catalytic conversion of bioethanol.
For the biofuels of the second generation the initial material is the so-called non-food biomass as forest biomass including working remnants, agricultural waste (straw, hay, maize and rape plant waste and other remains), power producing plants (knotweed, sorghum, dock etc.) or biological household waste. The biofuels manufactured from this material are bioethanol, diesel oil as a synthetic product of Fischer-Tropsch’s synthesis, or petrol as a product of catalytic conversion of synthetic gas, biobutanol from bioethanol etc. There is also the third generation using microbes that may live on surfaces unsuitable for growing food crop and may produce chemical substances that may be almost immediately used in engines.