Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 2.9
Major bioethanol producing countries of the world. (Source: German Advisory Council
on Global Change 2008)
Country/Region
Production
Amount (in Billion Liters)
Production (%)
European Union
2.3
4.4
United States
26.5
51.0
Brazil
1.7
16.5
China
1.3
15
India
0.4
0.8
World
52.0
100.0
6.7
Biodiesel Global Production
Around 10.2 billion l of biodiesel was produced on global scale in 2007 and pro-
duction has increased since then and is expected to increase in the coming years
as it has increased ten fold since 2000. The world's largest biodiesel producer
is Europe where rapeseed is used for this purpose, palm oil is used in Indonesia
and Malaysia and soybean in Brazil. A green place analysis showed that 20 %
plant biodiesel is produced from soya in Germany as is clear from Table
2.10
.
Some biofuels are also produced from the material produced after processing of
different crops and data is available on these activities. Some of the cultivation
areas are not solely dedicated to biofuel production, so it cannot be marked pre-
cisely enough on geographical basis. Production of biofuel generating crops on
cultivation areas is also not very old process, because of these factors it becomes
difficult to establish direct relationship of deforestation and biofuel production
(Jank et al.
2007
).
6.8
Policy Making to Enhance Biofuel Production
Commercial production of biofuels has been taking place since very long in differ-
ent regions of the world and special policies have been made in USA and Europe to
increase the production of biofuels as per demand, which has increased significantly
mostly because of diminishing supply of standard fuel, sky high prices of petrol and
diesel, global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. Thus biofuels are considered
very appropriate alternative in fuel production especially for the purpose of vehicle
engine ignition (Thoma
2012
).
6.9
Biofuel Controversy
There are two contrasting schools of thoughts when it comes to production of bio-
fuels.
