Biofuel: the search for alternatives

摘要

Today, the world is looking for different alternatives in order to solve the increasing difficulties that face its development, the feeding of its population and, in particular the feeding of developing nations. At the same time, the growing energy demand foreshadows the exhaustion of hydrocarbon reserves in the short and medium term and likewise a significant deterioration of natural resources, especially the contamination of water and the erosion of soil. In order to prevent irreversible changes and reduce the impact of greenhouse gases on the planet's climate, many countries have chosen to gamble on different strategies for the diversification of energy production utilizing renewable energy sources. The replacement of petroleum derived fuel with biofuels provides a reduction in CO2 emissions generated by vehicles. This appears to indicate that the biofuels could potentially be an option, but one not without questions. The new agro-energy industry, unlike that of the oil industry, involves a production chain that impacts more directly the different sectors of the economy, especially the generation of employment, agricultural development and the agro-industry. The addition of biofuels to fuel mixtures can partially mitigate the need for the importation of hydrocarbons, which furthers the national biofuel policy versus energy trade balance, and to a certain extent defines the parameters for security at the supply level. The goal of this paper is to assess the possible scenario of replacement of the current energy matrix with vegetable derived alternative products.