Why make biodiesel when so much food is thrown away at the supermarket?

Answer

Best,

You can get biofuel from grain, sugar cane, maize, fast-growing grasses, wood, rapeseed, oil plants, used cooking oil, algae …
‘First generation’ biofuels are made from food plants, or occupy farmland that can no longer be used for food production. ‘Second-generation’ biofuels use non-food plants growing on non-agricultural land. VIB’s modified poplars belong to the second generation (more info on https://vib.be/nl/science/modelorganism/poplaren).

Nowadays there is a lot of research into second generation biofuels because they do not compete with food grounds. What is thrown away from food in the supermarket cannot serve as biofuel, because this food has already been processed and it is therefore more difficult to extract the necessary components for biofuel.

Kind regards

Eveline Fack

Science communicator VIB