Traditional industrial development pathways, that did not take into explicit consideration the issue of energy technologies to be utilised, now imperil development prospects around the world. Energy security, global climate change and the tasks of industrial development now combine to create a...

Biofuels production is expanding rapidly all over the world, driven by rising crude oil prices, the desire of countries to be energy independent, and concerns about climate change. As developed countries, especially the United States, are expanding biofuels production, developing countries are...

The beneficiaries of technology adoption in agriculture and biofuels markets in the United States are heavily influenced by domestic biofuel policies and market context. Biofuel mandates, one of the key pillars of domestic biofuel policies, may significantly alter the elasticity of demand for...

We use the recent introduction of biofuels to study the effect of industry factors on the relation-ships between wholesale commodity prices. Correlations between agricultural products and oil are strongest in the 2005-09 period, coinciding with the boom of biofuels, and remain substantial until...

The expansion of a given land use may affect deforestation directly if forests are cleared to free land for this use, or indirectly, via the displacement of other land-use activities from non-forest areas towards the forest frontier. Unlike direct land conversion, indirect land-use changes...

This paper examines the relationship between biofuels and commodity food prices in the U.S. from a new perspective. While a large body of literature has tried to explain the linkages between sample means and volatilities associated with ethanol and agricultural price returns, little is known...

his paper explores recent patterns of foreign direct investments (FDI) in land in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with the focus on investment in biofuel crops. It describes the drivers and features of this type of investment compared to general FDI trends in developing countries and SSA. The...

The apparent activation energy of transesterification of soybean oil with methanol was investigated by the use of magnesium methoxide as solid base catalyst. The effect of variations in reaction time and temperature (50-65°C) on the macro reaction rate were studied while the molar ratio of...

In this study, we assess the economy-wide effects of biofuel investment in Ethiopia, with a focus on the external sector. The Government of Ethiopia has been revising its energy policy to switch from imported fossil oil to domestically produced biofuels, partly in response to climate change and...

Biomass offers an alternative renewable energy source to fossil fuels and can be used to produce energy directly or through the production of liquid biofuels, e.g., ethanol, as a substitute for liquid transport fuels. Biomass also offers a vehicle to sequester carbon dioxide, thereby reducing...