Biofuel production relies on stable supply of biomass which would be significantly influenced by climate-induced impacts. Since the actual agricultural outputs are relatively unpredictable in the face of uncertain environmental conditions and can only be realized in the harvest season, providing useful information regarding the stability of biomass supply to the downstream biofuel industry is crucial. This study firstly illustrates a theoretical framework to explore the resultant market equilibrium and optimal conditions of agricultural and bioenergy production in the face of highly uncertain environmental risks and then employs a two-stage stochastic programming model to investigate the optimal biofuel development and associated economic and environmental effects. The results show that total welfare may not always increase because the loss of other agricultural commodities induced by climate impacts may be greater than the gains received by biofuel production and emission reduction. This study provides insights into the area where artificial intelligence monitoring system can be implemented to analyze the input data associated with agricultural activities and help the biofuel industry to improve its production possibilities.
Mining and using depletable fossil fuel usually result in severe environmental problem such as climate change in the global scale and acid rain in the regional level. To improve sustainable development, it is important to substitute fossil fuel with renewable and clean energy sources. In this study we employ a partial equilibrium, price endogenous mathematical programming model to analyze how bioenergy development in Taiwan can (1) enhance domestic energy production, (2) reduce the carbon dioxide (CO 2) and sulfur dioxide (SO 2) emissions, and (3) protect the environment. The results show that the ethanol expands with an increase in gasoline price, but SO 2 emission reduction would shrink because of a reduction in renewable electricity generation. Conversely, up to 10.4% of Taiwan's annual SO 2 emission can be reduced in the face of higher coal and emission prices. A tradeoff between CO 2 and SO 2 emission reductions is perceived during the switch of production of liquid and nonliquid bioenergy. Policy implications such as technology selection, market operation, and government subsidy are also discussed.
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