Biofuels
Biofuels are a renewable energy source produced from biomass—organic materials or recycled oils converted into liquid fuel. Common biofuel types include ethanol, an alcohol made from plant biomass, and biodiesel, a combination of alcohol and oil or fat. The biofuels industry is rapidly expanding as it provides an alternative to fossil fuels.
In this two-year program, you’ll be making biofuels, creating the alternative fuels of ethanol and biodiesel. You’ll also learn to cultivate algae, a renewable resource that grows well in the Southwest, and study advanced vehicle technologies and sustainable technologies along with biology, chemistry and electrical and mechanical fundamentals. If you’d like to start your own biofuels business, SFCC’s biofuels classes include Planning the Entrepreneurial Venture, which will give you the knowledge and tools you need. You can also earn a Biofuels Certificate in this program.
Biofuels includes the Biodiesel and Alternative Fuels Programs, which provide a combination of classroom and hands-on laboratory training. The programs focus on Biodiesel, Biomass Energy, Anaerobic Digestion and Pyrolysis, and Ethanol. SFCC’s Biofuel’s Lab contains state-of-the-art equipment used to make biofuels, biodiesel and alternative fuels, demonstrating how different systems support each other in a bio-energy loop.
To help ensure students have a cutting-edge curriculum in green workforce training and to forge partnerships with New Mexico community colleges and green businesses, SFCC has created the Biofuels Center of Excellence. Partners include Los Alamos National Lab, the University of New Mexico, New Solutions Energy and many other leaders in the biofuels field.
The burgeoning biofuels industry offers a wide array of job opportunities. The median salary for a biofuels processing technician is $46,842, while a biofuels production manager earns, on average, $102,586.