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Biofuel for Developing Countries

At present there is much hype about biofuel. While some proponents see ethanol and vegetable oil based fuels as a panacea to stabilize energy markets and to provide energy security for countries lacking fossil fuels, others see it as an ecological and social nightmare. Tropical rainforests are under threat from land hungry biofuel producers and food prices have started to rise triggered by strong demand for biofuel feedstocks. We post a study here that is more than 20 years old and we believe that most of the questions discussed today have been very well understood in 1985.

The questions remain:

Which agricultural products might be suitable for use as a feedstock for biofuel production? How great is the potential for biofuel production in view of the available land and raw material base? What would be the feasibility, limits, and costs of expanded cultivation of "energy crops"? and finally, how would such shifts in land use most likely affect the agricultural sector in technological, economic structural and ecological terms, and what would be their probable impact on the poor?

Read more under:

“Biofuel for Developing Countries: Promising Strategy or Dead End?"by Gabriele Heber, Gerhard Zieroth et al.


For more information please contact:

Gerhard Zieroth
Project Leader - PIEPSAP Project.