Biofuel Programs Research Articles

Fuzzy Inoperability Input-output Analysis of Mandatory Biodiesel Blending Programs: The Philippine Case

Biofuels are regarded as one of the major low-carbon energy options currently available for large-scale use. Many countries have implemented biofuel programs that involve blending of bioethanol with gasoline, or biodiesel with diesel, at varying proportions. These programs are designed to address pressing concerns such as climate change, environmental quality, energy security and rural development. However, recent works suggest that biofuel resources may be at risk due to aberrant climatic events that are anticipated in the near future. Potential climate-induced disruptions include changes in precipitation levels, pest infestation, plant diseases, or increased frequency of extreme weather events. The incidence of such disruptions not only affects biofuel producers, but also energy-dependent economic sectors, resulting to “ripple effects” that further increase economic losses. We apply the inoperability input-output model (IIM) proposed by Haimes and Jiang (2001) and later enhanced by Santos and Haimes (2004) to assess the economic effects of implementing mandatory biodiesel blending programs in the Philippines. The IIM is based on the well-established technique of input-output analysis that quantifies risk through the inoperability metric, which is a dimensionless index whose value ranges from 0 (for a system functioning normally) to 1 (for a system in a state of total failure). Using the IIM, we determine the adverse effects of climate-induced biofuel disruptions on interdependent economic sectors. We estimate the resulting crop losses using the storm damage scenario from Stromberg et al. (2011) under no blending and a proposed blending rate of 5% as considered by the Department of Energy. Different ranking strategies are evaluated to determine sector vulnerability using inoperability levels, economic losses and weighted inoperability levels. For the latter scenario, equal weights are considered. Uncertainties within the modelling framework are captured through the use of fuzzy numbers.

Issues of social acceptance on biofuel development

Alongside with biofuel development, social acceptance issues have been underestimated. While social acceptance can emerge as powerful barrier for biofuel development, this article provides discussion on social acceptance in biofuel context. An acceptance framework based on life cycle biofuel production had been referred for a better understanding on social acceptance issues. Malaysia has been referred for the discussion as the country has faced with acceptance issue in their biofuel program. The discussion point out different societal groups will demand specific consideration for either support or oppose biofuel. This paper concludes that biofuel development will be constraint if social acceptance issues remain neglect.

Biofuel Policy as a Key Driver for Sustainable Development in the Biofuel Sector: The Missing Ingredient in Zimbabwe’s Biofuel Pursuit

As global warming continues to be a challenge, there is urgency to look into fossil fuel alternatives for sustainable energy supplies which have also been hastened by the volatility of crude oil prices and the fact that fossil fuel depletion is clearly in sight. Zimbabwe has not been spared of the negative effects of climate change which have affected both the food and energy sectors. This has proved to be a major challenge for the sustainable development of the country’s economy. In an effort to be energy independent, the country has for over decades looked into the prospect of utilising its vast biomass resources to produce biofuels. These programmes have been met with a number of challenges which has seen most such projects not succeeding. The current paper gives a narration of the history of biofuel programmes in Zimbabwe looking at their driving factors and reasons that led to their collapses. Lack of a national biofuel policy is identified as the major factor that has been the missing link in the past and must be addressed. The paper goes further to call for the crafting of a National Biofuel Policy for Zimbabwe highlighting the major thematic issues it would need to cover. An implementation plan for the programme has been proposed.

English

The selection of species that accumulate oil with potential for biofuel production has favored advancements in the scientific and technological domains within the Brazilian biofuel program. The equipments and methods used for such selection have always prosecuted the objective of increasing oil extraction. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the yield of oil extracted from five vegetable species – castor oil plant (Ricinus communis), physic nut (Jatropha curcas), soybean (Glycine max), groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.), and crambe (Crambe abyssinica) with two different moisture contents and using two different solvents, hexane and ethanol. The experimental design was factorial (5 × 2 × 2), in which grains of each of the five vegetable species in two different moisture contents were used for oil extraction. It can be concluded from this study that grain moisture content and solvent type had great influence in determining oil yield; and that hexane extraction was most efficient. J. curcas had the greatest increase of oil yield with 30.70% when performing extraction with grain moisture. The smallest differences between the solvents were found in the species R. communis with 12% of higher efficiency with hexane extraction. Key words: Biodiesel, ethanol, hexane, oil extraction yield.

Genetic analysis of Pongamia pinnata (L.) Pierre populations using AFLP markers

A study of genetic diversity in Pongamia pinnata representing 33 candidate plus trees (CPT) was undertaken in five agro-ecological zones of Southern Peninsular India. Eleven primer combinations generated 532 bands with an average of 48 bands per primer combination. E-ACG/M-GCC showed the highest polymorphism of 98.80 %. E-ACG/M-GCC, E-CAA/M-CTG, and E-CAG/M-GTG with higher polymorphic information, marker index, and resolving power were found to be effective in detecting unique bands. Nei's gene diversity and Shannon's indices of 0.159 and 0.247, respectively, indicated the presence of high gene diversity in southern dry and transition zones of Karnataka. The inter-population differentiation between zones (GST) was 0.296. The level of gene flow (Nm) estimated was 1.34. Analysis of molecular variance indicated that 44.78 % of variance occurred within the provenance when compared to variations among agro-ecological zones (22.22 %) and among provenances within zones (33 %). Based on un-weighted pair group method using arithmetic averages method, the pongamia accessions were grouped into three major clusters and four sub-groups depending on their geographical locations. The diverse CPT identified in this study could be selected and used for tree breeding, germplasm conservation, and biofuel program in India and other tropical countries.

Economic analysis of private and public benefits of corn, switchgrass and mixed grass systems in Eastern South Dakota

AbstractThe objective of this research is to develop an economic analysis of different crop mix biofuels programs for meeting ethanol and sustainability demands. Primary data are from South Dakota State University field experiments on farms located in east-central South Dakota. The data include 4 years of field data, three crop systems (mixed grass, switchgrass and corn), two residue treatments (no removal, removal of biomass), and three landscape positions (back slope, crest and foot slope). A representative farm model and five scenarios are developed to conduct a full budget analysis over a 12-year period. Public benefits are evaluated, using the benefit transfer method to value ecosystem services, by allocating a dollar value to three environmental variables; carbon sequestration, reduction of sedimentation and pheasant production. Stochastic simulation results are compared for each of the five scenarios, one with only annualized net private returns, and one including the value of environmental benefits. Results indicate that: (1) the conventional continuous corn scenario has the highest net returns over the 12-year budget, (2) carbon sequestration represents 80% of the environmental benefits, and (3) the added economic value of ecosystem services does not provide enough incentives for farmers to convert from corn production to grass production.

Governing biofuels in Brazil: A comparison of ethanol and biodiesel policies

Over the last decade Brazil has implemented a new and ambitious biofuel program: the National Program of Production and Use of Biodiesel (PNPB). When launching this program in 2004 the government stated that it wanted to avoid the same kind of geographical concentration, single crop focus, dominance of agribusiness, and exclusion of family farmers that have occurred with bioethanol production through the ProÁlcool policy since 1975. This paper compares the life histories of the bioethanol and the biodiesel policies of Brazil by analyzing their substantive policy content; the power and politics of actors that struggle for the design and implementation of the policies; and the polity in terms the organization and institutionalization of the policies. The paper concludes that both policies have become submerged by and dependent on the polity and politics of primarily the energy and agricultural sectors that operate as the two semi-autonomous governance fields. This submerging has shaped the substantive contents of biofuels policies, and explains why the 2004 biodiesel policy PNPB, in spite of its objectives for social inclusion and rural development, faces similar problems in implementation as its predecessor, the 1975 bioethanol policy ProÁlcool.

Practical implementation of liquid biofuels: The transferability of the Brazilian experiences

The main purpose of this paper was to carry out a systematic analysis of the particularities and trends pertaining to the development of biofuels in Brazil—a country which has demonstrated its leadership in this field during the last 40 years. The Brazilian experiences with biofuels are often used as references for decision making by other developed and developing countries. The transferability of Brazil's biofuels practices would be appreciated by many researchers and energy policy markers across the world. This work uses an adapted 5W2H (what, when, where, why, who, how, and how much) analysis technique to answer a variety of questions about the subject. The data, facts, and figures herein are offered as resources for other researchers and policy makers seeking benchmarking. Also, this work discusses the main certainties and uncertainties of the sugarcane agro-industry, and also goes into detail about the ethanol supply chain structure, its management, and particularities. Finally, this research analyzes the central aspects of biofuels implementation in Brazil, lists the most important aspects to consider during a selection of possible standard biofuels, and presents the main aspects of the National Program of Biodiesel Production and its sustainability. • A systemic cause–effect analysis was carried out on biofuel program success. • Main questions concerning implementation of liquid biofuels in Brazil were studied. • Main weakness aspects of biofuel logistic were treated. • During selection of benchmarking strategy. What needs to take into account?

Genetic Variability Studies in Seed Biochemical Traits of Pongamia pinnata (L.) Pierre Accessions

AbstractA genetic variability study of oil content, fatty acid composition and karanjin content of seeds was carried out in candidate plus trees of Pongamia pinnata from selected agro‐ecological zones of southern peninsular India. Significant zonal variation (P < 0.01) for biochemical traits was recorded. Significant positive correlation (P < 0.05) was recorded for latitude with oleic acid. Longitude showed significant negative correlation with palmitic acid and oleic acid. Altitude positively correlated with oleic acid and linolenic acid; negatively correlated with linoleic acid and seed oil content. Phenotypic co‐efficient of variation was higher than the genotypic co‐efficient of variation for all the biochemical traits. The oleic acid positively correlated with seed oil content (P < 0.05) and negatively correlated with linoleic acid and linolenic acid (P < 0.01). The zone 1, zone 2, zone 3 and zone 4 showed high heritability and genetic advance for oleic acid, linoleic acid and oleic to linoleic acid ratio. Based on Ward's method, the pongamia accessions were grouped into three major clusters and four sub‐groups depending on their geographical locations. Further, the results obtained in this study could be used as background information for biofuel programs in India and other tropical countries.

The Challenge of Liquid Transportation Fuels in Nigeria and the Emergence of the Nigerian Automotive Biofuel Programme

This study is aimed at assessing the challenge of liquid transportation fuel in Nigeria, which necessitated the entrance of the country into the biofuel race. The study found that despite being an important member of the organization of petroleum exporting countries (OPEC), Nigeria still suffers from fuel scarcities. Reasons for the short supply of refined petroleum products (particularly gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel) in Nigeria include poor capacity utilization of the nation’s refineries, disruption of crude oil supply to the refineries and political instability in the Niger Delta region (Nigeria’s oil province). Nigeria now relies heavily on foreign nations for the supply of these fuels. The country spends substantial part of her foreign exchange on fuel importation. The Federal Government now wishes to reverse this trend by initiating the automotive biofuel programme. The Nigerian automotive biofuel programme involved the construction of 9 plants comprising of 4 sugarcane and 2 cassava bioethanol projects and 3 biodiesel projects. These projects would involve the investment of $1.27 billion into the Nigerian economy for the production of 445 million L of ethanol, 192 MW of green electricity and 120 million L of biodiesel annually.

Climate impacts of a large‐scale biofuels expansion

A global biofuels program will potentially lead to intense pressures on land supply and cause widespread transformations in land use. These transformations can alter the Earth climate system by increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from land use changes and by changing the reflective and energy exchange characteristics of land ecosystems. Using an integrated assessment model that links an economic model with climate, terrestrial biogeochemistry, and biogeophysics models, we examined the biogeochemical and biogeophysical effects of possible land use changes from an expanded global second‐generation bioenergy program on surface temperatures over the first half of the 21st century. Our integrated assessment model shows that land clearing, especially forest clearing, has two concurrent effects—increased GHG emissions, resulting in surface air warming; and large changes in the land's reflective and energy exchange characteristics, resulting in surface air warming in the tropics but cooling in temperate and polar regions. Overall, these biogeochemical and biogeophysical effects will only have a small impact on global mean surface temperature. However, the model projects regional patterns of enhanced surface air warming in the Amazon Basin and the eastern part of the Congo Basin. Therefore, global land use strategies that protect tropical forests could dramatically reduce air warming projected in these regions.

The role of irrigation in determining the global land use impacts of biofuels

Recent studies have evaluated the land use consequences of biofuel programs and the associated carbon fluxes. However, all of these studies have effectively ignored the distinction between rainfed and irrigated lands and neglected the facts that irrigated croplands typically have much higher yields than their rainfed counterparts in the same region and that expansion in irrigated crops are limited in some regions due to water scarcity and irrigation constraint. This paper shows that these omissions introduce systematic biases in the measurement of biofuel-induced land use change emissions. A new computable general equilibrium model which distinguishes irrigated and rainfed agriculture is developed. The new model is an enhanced version of the publicly available Global Trade Analysis Project model with Biofuels (GTAP-BIO) which has been widely used in this field frequently. To distinguish irrigated and rainfed agriculture, the biophysical component of the GTAP-BIO model is extensively modified using the most recent published data in this area. The economic component of the model is also modified to handle the distinction between irrigated and rainfed agriculture. We find that ignoring the irrigated-rainfed distinction modestly underestimates global land use change, but results in sharply different geographic patterns of cropland expansion, with stronger rainfed expansion in more carbon-rich environments. This points to a significant underestimate of land use emissions in earlier studies. To provide more accurate estimates of biofuel-induced land use emissions, it is critical to incorporate the role of irrigation in crop production, taking into account the fact that expansion in irrigation is constrained in some regions across the world.

Design of Resource Use: Case of Jatropha Based Biodiesel in India

The biofuel program was promoted around the globe with mandate of decreasing the dependency on petroleum oil, reducing green house gas emissions, increasing agricultural profitability and as option for rural employment and development. There existed acceptable and popular perception that biofuel production is more economical to reduce petroleum oil dependency and green house gas emission primarily. However, this scalar approach is not found to be uniformly applicable across the world. The exploration of political economy of different regions provides varying priorities for promotion of biofuel program based on the context, type of feedstock under use, technologies employed and the health of the economy.The issue was not very different for India. The policy document of government of India mentioned that local level institutions would be given responsibility for resources planning and development through the involvement of panchayat, providing first hand right of resources to local user and priority to local energy use and self sufficiency. However, at the same time policy remained silent on technology inputs, research and development support and institutional support for achieving objectives set for the local level sustenance for resource use and design. And it remained biased toward transport sector with announcement of mixing of biofuel with petroleum oil. Based on the meta-analysis of the existing literature this study raised basic questions toward the policy aim and ambition of jatropha based biodiesel program in particular for India and biofuel program across world in general.

The introduction of electric vehicles in Brazil: Impacts on oil and electricity consumption

The aim of this article is to measure the impact on energy consumption of the introduction of electric vehicles on to the Brazilian market. To this end, a demand forecast model was used under four different scenarios, each scenario pre-supposing a given level of penetration of the hybrid vehicles in the market. It is shown that with the use of electricity for individual transport, a reduction in the consumption of gasoline, in 2030, of 40.7% would be accompanied by an increase in electricity consumption of 31.3% in relation to official projections, which means a reduction of 28.9% in total energy consumption by the national fleet, or approximately 24.6×106toe/year. Since one of the main obstacles to the introduction of electric cars in Brazil is the competition with the biofuels program, particularly ethanol, we sought to demonstrate here that electricity could act not as a substitute, but rather a complement for ethanol and gasoline. Despite the significant potential domestic production of fossil fuels in Brazil as a result of the discoveries in the pre-salt, the ethanol and the electricity produced in the country come from renewable sources. This circumstance, together with the fact that their domestic production takes place with minimal dependence on foreign raw materials and lesser price oscillation as compared to petroleum derivatives, makes electrical vehicles an attractive alternative.

MODELING LAND-USE CHANGES IN A GLOBAL CGE: ASSESSING THE EU BIOFUEL MANDATES WITH THE MIRAGE-BioF MODEL

Evaluation of indirect land-use changes due to biofuels has been very controversial over the past few years, as doubts have arisen about the environmental benefits of growing crops for use as a substitute for fossil fuels. This paper presents an overview of the MIRAGE-BioF CGE modeling approach to biofuel policies assessment. Our framework introduces new innovative features that strengthen the relevance of the methodology. In particular, a more detailed and consistent database has been developed to represent the sectors and substitution mechanisms at play. Moreover, the model used has been improved in several important ways to better reproduce the agricultural supply function and land-use change. However, we also emphasize the critical uncertainties that prevent us from being able to provide a precise two-digit figure on the extent of land-use change and associated emissions. We illustrate these efforts with the case of EU biofuel mandates implications. We show that emissions from the current national targets in the EU could lead to an indirect effect of land-use expansion ranging from 1 ha per TJ consumed to 12 ha per TJ with a median value of 3.4 ha per TJ. The associated emissions in a 20-year period would range from 10 gCO2 /MJ to 115 gCO2 /MJ, with a median value of 38 gCO2/MJ . These results seriously question the sustainability of the current EU biofuels policy and emphasize the even more dramatic effect of a biodiesel-oriented EU biofuel program, which was found to emit two times more than an EU ethanol-oriented program.

Impacts of Biofuels Policies in the EU

Biofuels have the potential of playing an important role in the renewable energy sources panorama, ensuring the achievement of multiple goals such as security of supply, reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, creation of green jobs, and development of business opportunities in the agricultural and rural sectors. Subsidies to the sector were justified on this basis, but analysis is required to determine real impacts. However, other potential impacts could offset any benefits biofuels may bring, and careful assessment and analysis of biofuels' impacts are necessary. These possible consequences involve food prices and food security, economic distortions of subsidies, and environmental impacts. Among the methodologies used to evaluate biofuels impacts, general equilibrium models (CGE) can be considered as the most comprehensive tool available to analyze governmental intervention at the aggregate level. The use of these tools is primarily to generate projections of future performance of the market (in terms of production, consumption, prices, international trade) on the basis of alternative scenarios. The present paper applies a general equilibrium model, an extended version of the GTAP (Global Trade Analysis Project) model developed by Hertel, Tyner and Birur in 2010, in which an alternative closure has been adopted in order to analyze the combined impacts of the US and EU biofuels programs considering in particular the socio-economic effects on prices, employment and welfare in the European Union in 2015.

Mandatory Demand as a Policy Instrument: The Case of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Biofuel Program

The U.S. Congress established the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program, which mandates a certain volume of biofuel consumption from 2006-2022, in an effort to enhance U.S. energy security, reduce transportation-related GHG emissions, and stimulate rural economic development. In this Paper, we assess the RFS from the viewpoint of industrial policy and provide the first empirical study addressing whether the RFS is an effective policy instrument to incentivize the development of the nascent biofuels industry. Our analysis focuses on data associated with the first-generation bioethanol industry and suggests that the RFS contributes to increasing economies of scale and improving the competition level among existing firms. More specifically, our empirical analysis suggests that: (1) the RFS has a positive significant effect on the capacity of first-generation bioethanol plants; and (2) the RFS positively affects the survival rate of first-generation bioethanol plants.

The Impact of Biofuels on Commodity Food Prices: Assessment of Findings

For years, agriculture has provided most of the fuel for vehicular transportation. Concerns about availability of fuels, balance of trade, and climate change led to the introduction of biofuel programs in the United States, Brazil,EuropeanUnion(EU),andothercountries. The impacts of these programs and the relationship between the food and fuel markets have become major topics of economic research. This paper summarizes the main findings of alternative lines of research on the relationship between the food and fuel markets and identifies gaps and quandaries that warrant further research. This is not meant to be a complete survey, and it emphasizes several of our studies within the broader literature. The paper distinguishes between two bodies of literature: one on the relationship between food and fuel prices and another on the impact of the introduction of biofuel on commodity food prices. While biofuel prices do not seem to affect food-commodity prices, we explain why the introduction of biofuel does. Moreover,biofuelshavenotbeenthemostdominant contributor to the recent food-price inflation and different biofuels have different impacts.

Around the World

In science news around the world this week, France's latest attempt to keep genetically modified crops from its fields was rebuked by a scientific panel at the European Food Safety Authority; a Senate committee wants to sink the U.S. military's biofuels program; police prevented U.K. activists from destroying an experiment to test a strain of genetically modified wheat; and the European Commission said that open access "will be the norm" for studies funded through Europe's £80 billion Horizon 2020 research program.

Jatropha curcas L. and multifunctional platforms for the development of rural sub-Saharan Africa

There is a great need to provide energy to rural Africans in order to spark development and help to alleviate poverty. Although Jatropha curcas L. is no longer considered to be a miracle crop, and large scale Jatropha biofuel programs have struggled, Jatropha still has potential to be successfully used in small scale development projects. To this end, there has been a great deal of interest in Jatropha and studies have shown the potential of Jatropha to be used with multifunctional platforms (MFPs) to provide energy to rural sub-Saharan Africa. This is a review paper which examines research on the various aspects of using Jatropha and MFPs to provide energy to rural Africans. Neat Jatropha can be used as a fuel for the type of simple diesel engines used in MFPs. Jatropha oil can also be converted to biodiesel through esterification and/or transesterification. The Jatropha plant can be used in many other ways and its utility increases the value it can bring to a village. There are challenges to increase the use of Jatropha, and among the greater difficulties are land issues (a Jatropha plantation to provide enough oil to power an MFP for a rural village would probably require about 8ha after 5years of growth). Despite the challenges, Jatropha has been successfully used in some development projects and merits further research.