Economy Perspective of Biofuel - A Comprehensive Review

ABSTRACT:

The term biofuel is referred to liquid, gas and solid fuels predominantly produced from biomass. Biofuels include energy security reasons, environmental concerns, foreign exchange savings, and socioeconomic issues related to the rural sector. Biofuels include bioethanol, biomethanol, vegetable oils, biodiesel, biogas, bio-synthetic gas (bio-syngas), bio-oil, bio-char, Fischer-Tropsch liquids, and biohydrogen. Most traditional biofuels, such as ethanol from corn, wheat, or sugar beets, and biodiesel from oil seeds, are produced from classic agricultural food crops that require high-quality agricultural land for growth. Due to its environmental merits, the share of biofuel in the automotive fuel market will grow fast in the next decade. There are several reasons for biofuels to be considered as relevant technologies by both developing and industrialized countries. Biofuels include energy security reasons, environmental concerns, foreign exchange savings, and socioeconomic issues related to the rural sector. Sustainable economic and industrial growth requires safe, sustainable resources of energy. For the future re-arrangement of a sustainable economy to biological raw materials, completely new approaches in research and development, production, and economy are necessary. The ‘first-generation’ biofuels appear unsustainable because of the potential stress that their production places on food commodities. For organic chemicals and materials these needs to follow a biorefinery model under environmentally sustainable conditions. Where these operate at present, their product range is largely limited to simple materials (i.e. cellulose, ethanol, and biofuels). Second generation biorefineries need to build on the need for sustainable chemical products through modern and proven green chemical technologies such as bioprocessing including pyrolysis, Fisher Tropsch, and other catalytic processes in order to make more complex molecules and materials on which a future sustainable society will be based. This review focuses on cost effective technologies and the processes to convert biomass into useful liquid biofuels and bioproducts. 

Key words: First generation biofuel, Second generation biofuel, Biorefinery, Policy, Renewable energy

http://www.ijbst.org/Home/papers-published/ijbst-2011-volume-4-issue-8