Diminishing of conventional fuels and hysterical vehicles emission leads to deterioration of the environment, which emphasize the research to work on biofuels. Biofuels from different sources attract the attention of research due to low emission and biodegradability. Emission of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and H-C reduced drastically using Biofuels (B-20) combustion. Contrary to the convent...

This introduction frames key questions on biofuels, land and agrarian change within agrarian political economy, political sociology and political ecology. It identifies and explains big questions that provide the starting point for the contributions to this collection. We lay out some of the emerging themes which define the politics of biofuels, land and agrarian change revolving around global ...

Many countries have adopted policies that support expanded production and use of liquid biofuels for transportation. These policies are intended to enhance domestic energy security, spur economic development and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and other pollutants. Biofuel policies, along with changing energy market fundamentals, have contributed to a significant increase in global b...

Background On 21 January 2008 the UK Government's Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) published its report on the inquiry 'Are biofuels sustainable?' [1]. Their short answer, which has since been echoed by a wave of media coverage and environmental group campaigning, was a resounding 'No'. The report concludes that the stimulation of biofuels production by the UK Government and by the EU is rec...

As petroleum prices continue to increase, it is likely that biofuels will play an ever-increasing role in our energy future. The processing of biomass-derived feedstocks (including cellulosic, starch- and sugar-derived biomass, and vegetable fats) by catalytic cracking and hydrotreating is a promising alternative for the future to produce biofuels, and the existing infrastructure of petroleum r...

In the EU-27, national policies supporting biofuels seem to be continuously changing. The first reason for this wave of changes stems from efficiency concerns. In previous years—say, up to 2007—the main objective of biofuel policies was to trigger both domestic production and consumption in the member countries through measures of fiscal stimulus and incentives (Directive 2003/ 30, shown in the...

How to cite this article: Blanchard R, Richardson DM, O’Farrell PJ, Von Maltitz GP. Biofuels and biodiversity in South Africa. S Afr J Sci. 2011;107(5/6), Art. #186, 8 pages. doi:10.4102/sajs. v107i5/6.186 The South African government, as part of its efforts to mitigate the effects of the ongoing energy crisis, has proposed that biofuels should form an important part of the country’s energy sup...

Life-cycle studies of the currently dominant transport biofuels (bioethanol made from starch or sugar and biodiesel made from vegetable oil) show that solar energy conversion efficiency is relatively poor if compared with solar cells and that such biofuels tend to do worse than conventional fossil transport fuels as to the emission of eutrophying and acidifying substances. Lifecycle studies of ...

Biofuels have gained increasing attention as an alternative to fossil fuels for several reasons, one of which is their potential to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transportation sector. Recent studies have questioned the validity of claims about the potential of biofuels to reduce GHG emissions relative to the liquid fossil fuels they are replacing when emissions owing to di...

Biofuels represent an important source of renewable energy and may play a crucial role in developing sustainable energy strategies for many countries and the world as a whole. The pros and cons of biofuels, however, have been debated both scientifically and politically. They remain a topic of controversy. In this paper, the evolvement of the perspectives and policies on biofuels in the United S...