Three Pillars of Advanced Biofuels’ Sustainability

Abstract

Today, reducing GHG emissions is an important goal worldwide. Initially, first-generation biofuels were considered as a solution; however, they created a conflict between food and fuel. Advanced biofuels, which use non-edible materials, have emerged and are becoming more widespread, thus resolving this conflict. The paper aimed to investigate the three pillars of advanced biofuels’ sustainability (economic, environmental, and social). In the frame of a systematic literature review, 41 out of the initially screened 3407 articles were analyzed in depth. The economic aspect of sustainability was the most frequently occurring topic, followed by the environmental aspect, while the number of articles related to the social aspect was limited. From the economic point of view, all the analyzed articles agreed that advanced biofuels are far from commercialization at this stage; however, there are promising options related to different feedstocks or production technologies. Advanced biofuels perform unequivocally better environmentally than even conventional biofuels. For third-generation biofuels, negative net GHG emissions can even be possible, while fourth-generation biofuels can theoretically be produced from CO2. With respect to the social pillar, job creation was the core element of the articles analyzed. This can be experienced at the farm, production, and research levels. Although the commercialization of advanced biofuel production will take time, humanity must turn to them in order to avoid the food versus fuel problem, as well as to successfully fight against climate change and global warming.

Biofuels Production: A Review on Sustainable Alternatives to Traditional Fuels and Energy Sources

“…Currently, new technology should be designed for process improvements that are more efficient and cost effective [43].…”

Study on the Performance and Emissions of Triple Blends of Diesel/Waste Plastic Oil/Vegetable Oil in a Diesel Engine: Advancing Eco-Friendly Solutions

“…For this reason, in the fleet of diesel engines, there is currently a great delay in the process of replacing fossil fuels with biodiesel compared to gasoline engines operated with bioethanol as a biofuel. For this reason, in recent years, research has aimed to find a means of transforming SVO into biofuels in a technically and economically viable way [16]. At present, the most appropriate process is to obtain the so-called advanced biofuel, or "green diesel", that can be attained via the application of several catalytic processes (cracking or pyrolysis, hydrodeoxygenation, and hydrotreating) to the triglycerides, producing renewable diesel fuels that are very close to fossil fuels.…”

Producing Upgradeable Bio-Oil from Food Bio-Waste Via Hybrid-Assisted Pretreatment Coupled with Catalytic Hydrotreatment

“…The advanced biofuels of second and third generation must comply with sustainability criteria from a wide array of different feedstock, ranging from lignocellulosic to microorganism biomass feedstocks, including municipal solid waste: biomass fraction of mixed municipal waste, industrial waste and biowaste from selected private households without competing with food and land supplies (Mizik and Gyarmati, 2022). On the other hand, non-edible sources of biomass, such as food waste from municipal solid waste, are important feedstocks in the production of advanced transportation fuels, as described by European Technology and Innovation Platform (ETIP Bioenergy).…”

“…Nevertheless, the valorisation of food waste has only focused on using the by-products obtained from some agricultural practices, e.g. landfill, animal feed, fertilizer supply, composting, incineration and anaerobic digestion (AD) (Mizik and Gyarmati, 2022). The recovery capacity, and its effectiveness in creating value in scaling the production from food waste, remain quite limited on a commercial level.…”

“…In this respect, designing systems for the production of multiple products would boost process competitiveness by lowering manufacturing costs further and assuring a more efficient utilisation of raw materials (Bhatia et al, 2023). Scientific studies have demonstrated that it is possible to generate a wide variety of bioenergy from biomass residues and waste, but also that its cost is not competitive to that of petro-fuels and other kinds of renewable energy (Bhatia et al, 2023;Mizik and Gyarmati, 2022;O'Connor et al, 2021). On-going efforts continue to be made extensively to improve conversion technologies and thereby reduce production costs (Lee et al, 2019).…”