Biofuels and Bioenergy Jobs
Biofuels are solid, liquid or gaseous fuels derived from relatively recently dead biological material unlike fossil fuels, which are derived from long dead biological material.
Biofuels can be produced from any biological carbon source; although, the most common sources are plants. Various plants and plant-derived materials are used for biofuel manufacturing. Globally, biofuels are most commonly used to power vehicles, heating homes, and cooking stoves. Biofuel industries are expanding in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Recent technology developed even allows for the conversion of pollution into renewable bio fuel. Agrofuels are biofuels which are produced from specific crops such as soybean, sugar cane, algae, or jatropha. rather than from waste processes such as landfill off-gassing or recycled vegetable oil.
Jobs in Bioenergy
Universities, laboratories, and industry are working together to find solutions to the difficult problems surrounding the production and use of biomass for energy and products. These R&D efforts require chemists, agricultural specialists, microbiologists, biochemists, and engineers, just to name a few.
Biofuel, biopower, and biobased product plants are most cost-effective when located near their source of biomass. Thus, bioenergy industry development has a special appeal because it creates direct and indirect jobs in rural areas and countries, and may prove to be a profitable complement for many existing agricultural and forestry businesses.
Engineers and construction workers are needed to design and build bioenergy plants, while electrical/electronic and mechanical technicians, engineers (mechanical, electrical, and chemical), mechanics, and equipment operators are needed to run and maintain these plants. Some may even require individuals cross-trained in areas such as engineering and biology, or chemistry and agriculture.
Jobs in bioenergy today cut across a wide spectrum of specialties and skills. And if R&D and industrial efforts succeed in making bioenergy more commercially profitable, we may see a dramatic increase in the number of bioenergy-related jobs. We'll need more farmers and foresters to produce and harvest biomass resources, more truckers to transport the resources to the power and fuel plants, and more operators to run facilities.
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