José C. Escobar, Electo S. Lora, Osvaldo J. Venturini, Edgar E. Yáñez, Edgar F. Castillo and Oscar Almazan

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
Volume 13, Issues 6-7, August-September 2009, Pages 1275-1287

This article was one of the 25 most downloaded in the Energy subject category, from ScienceDirect for the period April-June 2009
 

The imminent decline of the world's oil production, its high market prices and environmental impacts have made the production of biofuels reach unprecedented volumes over the last 10 years.

Intense debates are taking place among international organizations and political leaders in order to discuss the impacts of the biofuel use intensification.

This paper assesses the causes of the rise in the demand and production of biofuels and the state of the art of their world's current production.

It also discusses different vegetable raw materials sources and technological paths to produce biofuels, as well as issues of production cost and the relation of their economic feasibility with oil international prices.

The environmental impacts of programs that encourage biofuel production, farmland land requirements and the impacts on food production are also discussed, considering the life cycle analysis (LCA) as a tool.

The article concludes that the rise in the use of biofuels is inevitable and that international cooperation, regulations and certification mechanisms must be established regarding the use of land, the mitigation of environmental and social impacts caused by biofuel production. 

The authors also support appropriate working conditions and decent remuneration for workers of the biofuels production chain.

Read the article on ScienceDirect