A review was conducted on the use of thermochemical biomass gasification for producing biofuels, biopower and chemicals. The upstream processes for gasification are similar to other biomass processing methods. However, challenges remain in the gasification and downstream processing for viable...

The rapid upward shift in ethanol demand has raised concerns about ethanol’s impact on the price level and volatility of agricultural commodities. The popular press attributes much of this volatility in commodity prices to a price bubble in ethanol fuel and recent deflation. Market economics...

This paper derives a method to quantify the impact of biofuel on fuel markets, assuming that these markets are dominated by cartel of oil-rich countries, and that prices in these countries are set to maximize the sum of domestic consumer and producer surplus, leading to a wedge between domestic...

The introduction of renewable biofuels was associated with global food crisis and unintended environmental consequences. This paper incorporates energy environment and agricultural sector to the classic Hecksher-Ohlin model to address these issues. A household production function model was...

[Paper in French] The European public policy in favor of the biodiesel consumption is highly debated. Available estimates of the induced land use changes conclude that this policy is inefficient to reduce emissions of GreenHouse Gas. We show that the crop yield evolutions in these estimates are...

The European public policy in favor of the biodiesel consumption is highly debated. Available estimates of the induced land use changes conclude that this policy is inefficient to reduce emissions of GreenHouse Gas. We show that the crop yield evolutions in these estimates are significantly...

Available estimates of biofuel-induced land use change (LUC) and corresponding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions vary on a wide range while estimations obtained from each model are highly sensitive to certain assumptions and key parameter values. Available studies often suggest that biodiesel and...

Conventional fossil fuel-based energy technologies can achieve efficiency in energy conversion but they are usually completely inefficient in carbon conversion because they generate significant CO2 emissions to the atmosphere per unit energy converted. In contrast, some renewable energy...

Recent contributions have questioned whether biofuels policies actually lead to emissions reductions, and thus lower climate costs. In this paper we make two contributions to the literature. First, we study the market effects of a renewable fuel standard. Opposed to most previous studies we...

To meet rising energy demands in a sustainable manner, the United States Renewable Fuel Standard 2 (RFS2) mandates the production of 3.78billion L (1billion gallons) of biomass-based biodiesel per year by 2020. Urban marginal lands, herein defined as lots with poor agricultural potential and...