Handbook of Cellulosic Ethanol

Advantages of Biofuels

Common biofuels include bioethanol, biomethanol, vegetable oils, biodiesel, biogas, biosynthetic gas or biomass-derived syngas, bio-oil, bio-char, and bio-hydrogen. The benefits or advantages of biofuels can be broadly classified into three groups: economic, environmental, and energy security and these factors are outlined below [9, 6].

Economic impacts:

• Sustainability in relation to economic growth

• Increased number of rural manufacturing jobs in biorefinery

• Opportunity for certain developing countries to reduce their dependence on oil imports

• Increased investments in plant and equipment

• Fuel diversity

• Agricultural development

• International competitiveness, especially for develop­ing countries with land resources

Environmental impacts:

• Greenhouse gas reductions

• Reduction of air pollution—bioethanol's high oxygen content reduces carbon monoxide levels more than any other oxygenate

• Biodegradability

• Improved land and water use

• Carbon sequestration

Energy security:

• Supply reliability independent of international politi­cal climate

• Ready availability

• Ability to set domestic targets for production and markets

• Domestic distribution

• Renewability

In addition to these, there may be other socio-economic and environmental implications for developing countries to benefit from increased global demand for biofuels. In developed countries there is a growing trend towards employing modern technologies in large-scale production of biofuels. Furthermore, with recent advances like genetic manipulations of microorganisms, and effi­cient bioenergy conversions, biofuels are becoming cost competi­tive with fossil fuels [10].