Resource information
This report addresses the issues
associated with trade in liquid biofuels is a second Energy
Sector Management Assistance Program report on biofuels, and
part of a broader assessment of bioenergy undertaken by the
World Bank. The report asks how liberalizing trade in liquid
biofuels might affect biofuel production and consumption.
Bioenergy is playing an increasingly important role as an
alternative and renewable source of energy. Bioenergy
includes solid biomass, biogas, and liquid biofuels.
Combustion of biomass residues for heat and power generation
is commercially viable without government support in some
applications. Liquid biofuels made from biomass are
attracting growing interest worldwide, driven by concerns
about energy security, climate change, and local
environmental considerations and a desire to support
domestic agriculture. The global liquid biofuel market today
utilizes so called first generation technologies and relies
mainly on agricultural food or feed crops for feedstock.
Second generation biofuels, still far from commercially
viable, can open up many new opportunities because they can
be sourced from a much wider variety of feedstock's,
vastly expanding the potential for fuel production and for
abating greenhouse gas emission. The timing of
commercialization is uncertain, although some industry
analysts indicate that the needed cost reductions may be
achieved in the coming decade. Focusing primarily on ethanol
and biodiesel, the report takes a time horizon of the next 5
to 10 years. It outlines the important link between
agriculture and biofuels, reviews past and present
government policies for agriculture and for biofuels, and
considers how these policies might affect the world biofuel
market. The report highlights the links between the markets
for oil, biofuels, feedstock's, and the by-products of
biofuel processing. It reviews existing studies, examining
the likely consequences of much larger biofuel production
and trade liberalization of biofuels and their
feedstock's. It concludes with policy considerations.
