The Brazilian biofuels industry

The Viability of Biofuels in Developing Countries: Successes, Failures, and Challenges

In the last few decades, finding alternatives to fossil fuels has become a hot issue across all international frontiers. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has shed light on the feasibility of using biofuels to meet the growing energy demand as well as to reduce CO2 emissions which are a major cause of global warming, especially in the transportation sector. The...

Maturation of biomass-to-biofuels conversion technology pathways for rapid expansion of biofuels production: a system dynamics perspective

The Biomass Scenario Model (BSM) is a system-dynamics simulation model intended to explore the potential for rapid expansion of the biofuels industry. The model is not predictive — it uses scenario assumptions based on various types of data to simulate industry development, emphasizing how incentives and technological learning-by-doing might accelerate industry growth. The BSM simulates major s...

Toward glycerol biorefinery: metabolic engineering for the production of biofuels and chemicals from glycerol

As an inevitable by-product of the biofuel industry, glycerol is becoming an attractive feedstock for biorefinery due to its abundance, low price and high degree of reduction. Converting crude glycerol into value-added products is important to increase the economic viability of the biofuel industry. Metabolic engineering of industrial strains to improve its performance and to enlarge the produc...

Implications of the Biofuels Boom for the Global Livestock Industry: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis*

The past decade has seen rapid growth in the global biofuels sector – particularly in the US and the EU. This has had important implications for the global livestock industry – both by raising the cost of feed grains and oilseeds and by forcing onto the market a large supply of biofuel by-products, many of which end up in livestock feed rations. This paper systematically investigates the impact...

Biofuels versus food: How much Brazilian ethanol production can affect domestic food prices?