Publisher's Synopsis
Development of a bio-fuels industry in a developed and developing nations has the potential to increase food and land prices and the IEA has indicated that the relationship between agricultural and petroleum economics is so complicated that it introduces a high degree of uncertainty in cost-benefit ratio analyses of the development of the biofuels industry.However use of degradable resources such as algae, agricultural field crops and low cost processing conversion technologies may eliminate this problem. The benefits for developing countries' economies depend on low cost processing methods, but the conditions determining the balance are different in each country. Therefore, biofuel policies should be looked at on a case-by-case basis and evaluated in the light of specific circumstances such as economic conditions, climate, land and workforce availability, market size, fuel distribution and storage infrastructure, and car fleet characteristics. Agriculture or algal biomass is a renewable resource which, even in optimistic scenarios, considering the current technology, can only be expected to cover a modest fraction of the world's energy needs. If greenhouse gases' (GHG) reduction is the prime objective then governmental policy instruments should ensure that biomass is used where the complete supply chain, or where it is the best available alternative to replace carbon intensive energy products. This can only be achieved through assessing and comparing the different possible ways to use the available bio-resources. These may vary from country to country and region to region. Reduction of GHG emissions is a major driver for biofuels growth. It is therefore essential to be confident that those biofuels that are being encouraged (and often subsidised by governments) do indeed lead to substantial reductions of GHG emissions. This calls for globally agreed, transparent methodologies to assess the 'GHG footprint' of biofuels across their life cycle.Proper formulation of biofuels can help assure lower emissions of conventional fuel pollutants.
