A Review on Potential and Status of Biofuel Production in Ethiopia

Fossil fuel is the back bone of the world energy demand. Since it is nonrenewable source, this energy is diminishing from time to time and it is more likely to be empty in near future. On the other hand, fossil fuel is the main contributor to air pollution and generally causes climate change. Furthermore, due to different factors such as political unrest in the fossil fuel producing countries, the price of the fuels is rising. All the aforementioned factors and other challenges lead to search alternatives which are renewable, environmentally friendly and cost effective fuels. Accordingly, biofuel is considered as the most promising source which can be used by blending or alone in the fossil fuel machine without more modification. Biofuels are produced from plant oils, animal fat and waste materials. The most common biofuel are ethanol and biodiesel. The biodiesel can be produced from different plants like Jatropha while the ethanol from molasses. USA is the leading country in biofuel production followed by Brazil and Europe. Developing countries including Ethiopia did not exploit their potential. Biofuel have also its own drawbacks like competition for food and climate change in the production of more biofuel.