Future biofuel trends

In the past decade, there has been a lot of technological advancements in motor vehicles that run on renewable energy sources.
The increasing threat of fossil fuel depletion coupled with the need to maintain renewable sources continues to push for the demand for biofuel.
We live in a world where the global market for biofuels and renewable sources continues to grow in order to maintain the growing population.
Our reliance on energy is a global necessity as our government attempts to mitigate the growing issue of climate change as a direct result of increased demand for automobile fuel.
The most obvious benefit of replacing fossil fuels is the environmental impact it will have on carbon emissions. Since biofuels burn faster and cleaner than fossil fuels, it will release greenhouse gases at a lower and slower rate. Secondly, the use of biofuels will allow the economy to reap its benefits.

 Latest trends in biofuel production

A common argument against biofuels, especially ethanol, is that it requires more energy to produce than it generates.
Indeed, biofuels take substantially more energy to produce than fossil fuels -however, it is in fact less than the energy that it generates.
The notion that biofuels have a negative net energy balance is somewhat outdated, with advances in agriculture (for example, genetically modified crops and fertilisers) along with better conversion techniques have driven down the energy required to produce a gallon of ethanol.

Cost benefit analysis

According to the US Department of Energy, ethanol produced by corn delivers at least 30% more energy than is used to produce it.
This net energy balance is substantially higher for sugar and soy-based ethanol, such as that produced in Brazil.  Similarly, biodiesels tend to have a higher net energy balance.
As such, the case against biofuels is primarily economic, with the future of biofuels being highly dependent on their profitability.
It needs to fulfill factors such as environmental and economic stability as well as how technology allows these products to make advancements.
As of right now, biofuel production is naturally most profitable in environmentally scarce tropical areas because biofuel yields are higher per acre while input costs are comparatively lower.
Brazil is a second leading middle-income country that produces and exports ethanol produced from sugarcane and soybeans.
They use ethanol and biodiesel in many of their car and truck models and at one time accounted for 70% of the world’s production of biofuel.
In contrast, the US, which is currently the leading country in biofuels, was able to replace 75% of imported oil in 2006 with biofuels.
American biofuel is primarily corn-based, despite being intensive to cultivate this crop in regard to both resources and land.
The main issue with replacing global fuel supplies with biofuels is that it requires a significant amount of land and agricultural production to maintain those resources.
In short, it would require agriculture rates to double, which is hard to predict if there is enough land available for biomass cultivation.
Despite their increased usage, fossil fuels are still cheaper to produce than biofuels, calling to question the use of biofuels from an economic standpoint. Feedstock prices have increased 37% for bagasse in Brazil and 40-50% for corn in the United States over the past decade.
With this rise in pricing, the cost is even higher now than it was almost a decade ago.
Since crude oil is naturally occurring and requires minimal refining to make petroleum and diesel, it carries a lower production cost. However, crude oil prices are driven by a number of socio-political factors and cost speculation.
As such, the ratio of crude oil to biofuel feedstock has remained somewhat constant, such any reduction in biofuel costs typically coincides with a drop in crude oil prices.
However, as oil becomes scarcer and only available in unstable regions, biofuels become more appealing from an economic standpoint. Moreover, the oil market is somewhat volatile with socio-political disruptions in Iran or Venezuela resulting in large fluctuation in crude oil prices.
These fluctuation in prices makes it difficult to depend on oil to continue to be a sustainable source of fuel.
This uncertainty has caused the motor industry to move towards electric cars that do not require oil, causing further disruption to oil demand.

Blazing a trail

Another region of the globe that is leading in biofuel production is Latin America.
Biofuel accounts for the transition to clean energy in Latin American because it utilises less than 8% of the world’s transport energy but is responsible for 23% of the world’s demand for biofuels.
Argentina and Brazil are just two examples of the largest world markets. In addition, second to America, Brazil has the largest share of transport renewable energy in an effort to the oil crisis of 1973.
Since then, they have been trying to promote more clean energy sources such as biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels.
As mentioned previously, Brazil receives most of their biofuel energy resources from the sugarcane industry as it is abundant in their country.
It has been responsible for creating jobs and employment in the automobile and flex-fuel vehicle companies allowing more consumers access to this new variation of energy.
Similarly, it gives consumers the option to pump either ethanol or gasoline which is dependent on the pricing and consumer preference.
The most difficult challenge in developing biofuels for the next few years is the cost of economic feedstocks.
These feedstocks, which are the raw material that are needed to supply or fuel a machine or industrial process, contributes 80-90% of the final fuel price for most fuel-making processes and is important to maintain the viability of future biofuels.
When referring to generations of biofuels, it usually indicates 30 years between each generation.
First generation biofuels are usually created from feedstocks made from food such as corn and animal byproducts. Since the limitations for feedstocks include the quantity that can be produced, they have most likely reached their economic market share in order to keep prices low.

Generation game

Second generation biofuels are usually made from feedstocks usually not consisting of food such as ethanol or agricultural residues.
These costs remain high because of the long process that goes into handling and production. Lastly, we have third generation biofuels which are also made from feedstocks not consisting of food, but are found mainly in petroleum products.
These are the biofuels that are the most promising for the future because they are usually referred to as advanced biofuels or green hydrocarbons.
Algae is also being looked at as a potential feedstock for the near future.
The use of these biofuels as a direct substitute for petroleum and diesel could mean that there will be renewable options that expand far beyond just the scope of fuel.
The use of sea kelp is the innovation in biofuel that many researchers are looking forward to expanding as well.
Kelp is a raw material that requires minimal natural resources and is a fast growing organism meaning that producing it will not be a problem. Researchers at the University of Southern California are developing the growth of kelp on a larger scale and they plan to use solar-power buoys and underwater tetrahedron structure to bring kelp to the surface of the ocean.
This cycle will produce more biomass and will be maintained at a larger scale so that one day it might be able to meet the needs of the fuel industry in the US and compete to replace the fossil fuel industry.

Conclusion

With the growing pressure to lower carbon emissions, the application of biofuels is a plausible solution to the replacement of oil in the near future. This change in energy source will bring a competitive advantage to the use of alternative fuels.
In the near future, if we are able to meet the land requirements to increase the resources available to make biofuels economically profitable, then it might be able to replace the fossil fuel we use today.
The key factor of profitability which is dependent on commodities will be able to undercut the high rising oil prices. In the near future, if biofuels become available for countries to utilise globally, then it will have a significant impact on the global economy and the environment.

The post Future biofuel trends appeared first on Biofuels International Magazine.