Around the world, many countries are increasing efforts to promote biomass production for industrial uses including biofuels and bio-products such as chemicals and bio-plastic. Against a backdrop of lively public debate on sustainability, bioenergy wields both positive and negative impacts upon a variety of environmental and socio-economic issues. These include property rights, labor conditions, social welfare, economic wealth, poverty reduction and more. This book discusses the issues and impacts of bioenergy, taking into account the local and regional framework under which bioenergy is produced, touching upon educational level, cultural aspects, the history and economies of the producing countries and an array of policies including environmental and social targets. The book surveys and analyzes global bioenergy production from a number of perspectives. The authors illustrate the complexity of interrelated topics in the bioenergy value chain, ranging from agriculture to conversion processes, as well as from social implications to environmental effects. It goes on to offer insight on future challenges associated with the expected boom of a global bio-based economy, which contributes to the paradigm shift from a fossil-based to a biomass and renewable energy-based economy. The expert contributors include researchers, investors, policy makers, representatives from NGOs and other stakeholders, from Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America. Their contributions build upon the results of the Global-Bio-Pact project on “Global Assessment of Biomass and Bio-product Impacts on Socio-economics and Sustainability,” which was supported by the European Commission in its 7th Framework Program for Research and Technological Development, conducted from February 2010 to January 2013. The book benefits policy makers, scientists and NGO staffers working in the fields of agriculture, forestry, biotechnology and energy.

“The theoretical challenge to strive for a unifying framework for such various and diverging concepts and ideas makes the ‘Bioenergy Economy’ a unique and extremely stimulating reading.” Prof. Michael Wirsching Head of Psychosomatic Department of Albert Ludwig University, Freiburg

Concerns about energy security, uncertainty about oil prices, declining oil reserves, and global climate change are fueling a shift towards bioenergy as a renewable alternative to fossil fuels. Public policies and private investments around the globe are aiming to increase local capacity to produce biofuels. A key constraint to the expansion of biofuel production is the limited amount of land available to meet the needs for fuel, feed, and food in the coming decades. Large-scale biofuel production raises concerns about food versus fuel tradeoffs, about demands for natural resources such as water, and about potential impacts on environmental quality. The book is organized into five parts. The introductory part provides a context for the emerging economic and policy challenges related to bioenergy and the motivations for biofuels as an energy source. The second part of the handbook includes chapters that examine the implications of expanded production of first generation biofuels for the allocation of land between food and fuel and for food/feed prices and trade in biofuels as well as the potential for technology improvements to mitigate the food vs. fuel competition for land. Chapters in the third part examine the infrastructural and logistical challenges posed by large scale biofuel production and the factors that will influence the location of biorefineries and the mix of feedstocks they use. The fourth part includes chapters that examine the environmental implications of biofuels, their implications for the design of policies and the unintended environmental consequences of existing biofuel policies. The final part presents economic analysis of the market, social welfare, and distributional effects of biofuel policies.

The Role of Bioenergy in the Bioeconomy: Resources, Technologies, Sustainability and Policy provides the reader with a complete understanding on how bioenergy technologies fit into the new bioeconomy paradigm. Sections focus on the main resources and technologies for bioenergy and its integration in energy systems and biorefining chains, analyze the available methodologies for assessing the sustainability of bioenergy, and address and the propose approaches that are demonstrated through concrete case studies. Additionally, the implications of bioenergy in the water-energy and land nexus is presented, along with new challenges and opportunities. This book’s strong focus on sustainability of bioenergy, both as a standalone, and in the larger context of a bio-based economy, makes it a useful resource for researchers, professionals and students in the bioenergy field who need tactics to assess the lifecycle and sustainability of bioenergy technologies and their integration into existing systems. Presents a complete overview of the main challenges that bioenergy will have to overcome in order to play a key role in future energy systems Explores sustainability aspects in detail, both qualitatively and by applying proposed methodologies to concrete bioenergy case studies Covers, in detail, the water-energy-land nexus implications and governance aspects

Growing concerns about the impacts of climate change and dependence on fossil fuels have intensified interest in bioenergy from sugar cane and other crops, highlighting important links between energy, environment and development goals. Sub-Saharan Africa is characterized by severe poverty; the possibility to exploit a renewable energy resource offers valuable avenues for sustainable development and could support a more dynamic and competitive economy. This book describes how the bioenergy expansion will improve rural livelihoods, reduce costly energy imports, reduce GHG emissions, and offer new development paths. Drawing on international experience, it is shown that harnessing this potential will require significant increases in investment, technology transfer, and international cooperation. Because of its high efficiency, the authors argue that sugar cane should be viewed as a global resource for sustainable development and should command much greater focus and concerted policy action. Through an analysis of the agronomy, land suitability and industrial processing of sugar cane and its co-products, along with an assessment of the energy, economic and environmental implications, this volume demonstrates that sugar cane offers a competitive and environmentally beneficial resource for Africa's economic development and energy security. With forty-four authors representing thirty organisations in sixteen countries, the book offers a truly international and interdisciplinary perspective by combining technical and economic principles with social, political and environmental assessment and policy analysis.

In its second volume, this book aims to link the academic research with development in the real world and provide a historical and institutional background that can enrich more formal research. The first section will include an assessment of the evolution and the state of the nascent second-generation biofuel as well as a perspective on the evolution of corn ethanol and sugarcane ethanol in Brazil. It will also include a historical and institutional background on the biofuel industry in Brazil that has global lessons, and later, provide a technical overview of major analytical tools used to assess the economic, land use and greenhouse gas implications of biofuel policies at a regional and global level. Additionally, the book analyzes the various drivers for land use change both at a micro-economic level and at a macro-economic level. It presents studies that apply regional and global economic models to examine the effects of biofuel policies in the US, EU and Brazil on regional and global land use, on food and fuel prices and greenhouse gas emissions. These papers illustrate the use of partial and general equilibrium modeling approaches to simulate the effects of various biofuel policies, and includes studies showing the effects of risk aversion, time preferences and liquidity constraints on farmers decision to grow energy crops for biofuel production. By presenting the tools of lifecycle analysis for assessing the direct greenhouse gas intensity of biofuels, this handbook investigates the types of indirect or market mediated effects that can offset or strengthen these direct effects. It will include tools to assess the direct and indirect effects of biofuel production on greenhouse gas emissions in the US and Brazil, and ultimately provide a comprehensive background to understand the state of biofuel in the present and how to analyze their implication.

Providing an illuminating framework as to how policy and market players could and should drive the development of a biobased economy that is effective, sustainable, fair and cost efficient. The result is an essential resource for all those working in or concerned with biobased industries, their policy or research.