increasing world population, industrialization and overuse of fossil resources have changed the way governments look at renewable energy sources as the environmental problems have become a global problem, moving away from the regional and national dimension over time. Countries that do not want to be dependent on external energy and have problems in energy supply are trying to increase and diversify their alternative energy sources due to increasing environmental problems due to fossil resources. New and renewable energy sources, which are an important opportunity especially for countries that are dependent on external energy, have become an important driving factor in the development of countries, together with captured cost advantages. With the positive developments in alternative energy sources in the world, biomass energy is one of the renewable energy sources that has been evaluated and increased in importance in this context recently. Biomass will be of potential importance in terms of providing a sustainable and cost-effective energy source in the future. It is reported that 90% of the world’s population will live in developing countries by 2050. In developed countries, the use of modern technologies and efficient bio-energy conversions using bio-fuels that are economically competitive with fossil fuels tends to increase.
In order to make maximum use of the world’s bioethanol facilities to provide energy needs, support must be given to producers of bioethanol raw materials. Especially in the field of bioethanol production from agricultural wastes, the farmers should be provided with facilities and technological and logistical support should be provided for the collection and transportation of cellulosic wastes to bioethanol plants. Efforts should be made to develop engineering services that will increase productivity in biofuel production and to reduce the costs associated with these services. Processes aiming at high efficiency at low cost should be developed and these processes should be facilitated. In order to produce the targeted biofuel production and the energy obtained from these biofuels, it is important to facilitate the results in bureaucratic processes. Biofuels obtained from biomass are seen as an alternative source of energy for the purpose of solving energy, environmental and climate problems. However, biofuel production is closely related not only to energy and environmental policies, but also to agricultural and rural development policies due to the processing of soil for production purposes. In the transition to energy agriculture, the use of agricultural products as energy raw materials together with the production of these products and the resources to be allocated to these products will affect all of society in general socioeconomic terms and especially individuals living in rural areas.
When we examine the production costs of biofuels, we see that energy agriculture is supported at high levels today and biofuel production is very costly with existing technologies. Estimates state that by 2050 energy plants could be produced at the level of today’s most costly coals. Ethanol produced today is diagnosed as a transitional technology product. The long-term goal is to produce direct fuel from biomass by establishing advanced biorafineries. These refineries will produce more efficiently using all parts of the biomass. But an important question is, “When will the production of biofuels be increased to larger industrial scales?” In addition, research and development activities on the subject will determine the future of technology. It is expected that cellulosic biomass technology will be used extensively for ethanol production in the coming years as an environmental positive effect cellulosic biofuel will be produced with perennial herbs and trees that will prevent erosion. Thanks to these new plants and trees, monoculture will also be eliminated from agriculture. In order to produce cellulosic ethanol, especially large-scale plants in the world are under construction, but the development of the technology requires 7-10 years more.
While examining the advantages and disadvantages of biofuels, it is important to note that many policies have been intertwined. Energy, environment, agriculture and rural development are linked to the policies to be created for the production and use of fuel from renewable sources. It is possible that biofuels are an alternative solution to energy, rural development and environmental problems.
1.10 Conclusion
Fuel and energy resources for fossil fuels in use today, natural gas, coal, nuclear energy, hydrogen, geothermal, wind, solar, electricity from methane gas, wood/wood/forest and wave energy. Although the demand for heavily used fossil fuels continues to increase, sustainable consumption of these fuels in the future will not be possible due to reduced reserves and negative environmental impacts. For these reasons, and especially in order to reduce greenhouse gas impacts, it is expected that in the future fuels derived from solar, hydrogen, wind and biomass, which are nuclear and renewable sources of energy rather than petroleum products, will come to the fore. One of the major sources within alternative and renewable energy technologies is biomass. Living or inanimate biological substances used for energy generation are called biomass. Biomass energy resources consist of plant, animal and urban wastes of organic origin. The biomass energy sources used extensively today are weed and woody energy crops, industrial crops, agricultural crops, agricultural product wastes, forest wastes, urban solid wastes, biomass processing wastes and animal wastes.
It has been determined that plants and plant residues to be used in biofuel production are alternative sources and environmentally friendly renewable energy sources that do not harm human nutrition and environmental health. In this context, fuels of vegetable origin are grouped as bioethanol, biodiesel, biogas, biomethanol, biomethyl ether and bio-oil. The most common of biofuels are bioethanol and biodiesel. Bioethanol is a high octane number of biofuel, originated from starch and obtained from agricultural products. Bioethanol is obtained as a result of the fermentation process applied after the conversion of starch to sugar, which is present in agricultural product. It can be mixed directly with gasoline. The main plants that can produce bioethanol are wheat, sugar beet and corn. Utilization of biomass can be in the form of direct combustion or by increasing the quality of fuel in various ways, and obtaining biofuels close to known energy sources or having equivalent properties. Nowadays, there is no rapidly growing agricultural production area built to provide biofuels. Researchers are working to find alternative energy sources from renewable raw materials because of the limited and depleted of conventional petroleum fuels. Renewable energy technologies have an important place in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as eliminate the world’s energy demand. Biomass energy potential is the most promising energy source among its renewable energy sources due to its worldwide availability. Apart from this, biomass has unique advantages such as providing solid, liquid and gaseous fuels that can be stored, transported and used away from the starting point among the fuels other than renewable energy sources. Biofuels have many priorities that offer sustainability, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, regional development, social structure and agriculture. As a result, biofuels can be a valuable source of energy with planned production.
Biofuels provide very effective values both in terms of ecological balance and environmental health. Because of the increasing demand for biofuels, interest in fossil fuels is decreasing. Depending on this, new fields are being formed in agriculture, which increases arable agricultural areas. Accordingly, the wastes left over from agricultural products are evaluated and this contributes to the economy of the country. When we look at it from an environmental perspective, biofuels are very important. The value of high CO2 in the air decreases and the exhaust emission values decrease. Due to its beneficial effect on the environment, climatic differences due to global warming are greatly reduced. In addition to the positive effects of biofuels, some negative causes occur. For example, since biofuel production depends on agricultural activities, more agricultural areas need to be processed. In this case, the existing forest and pasture areas to be opened to production by plowing can cause the reduction of CO2. In addition, due to the narrowing of the existing areas, there may be problems related to grazing animals. In addition, due to declining agricultural areas, large areas become fragmented and food prices rise due to declining agricultural areas. At this point, consumption of primary energy sources, especially those based on oil and coal, has destroyed one-third of the world’s natural resources, 12% of forests, one-third of the biodiversity in the oceans and 50% of fresh water. Another disadvantage of these energy sources is that they are not renewable. However, attempts to solve the world’s energy problem with renewable energy and biofuels through “clean energy” have begun and are progressing rapidly. Interest
