The Economics & Sustainability of Bio-diesel

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The Economics & Sustainability of Bio-diesel

Biodiesel is, without doubt, a good idea. The real topic that is debated hotly today is whether biodiesel is an economically sustainable idea, given the costs of production, fossil and non-fossil energy spent for producing energy from biodiesel, opportunity costs for the respective plant oils, and the competing fuels (mainly fossil fuels) already available.

Did you know? Biodiesel currently costs (most times) more than petro-diesel

The following web resources focus on the economics, cost-benefits & sustainability of bio-fuels in general and biodiesel in particular.

· Academic Study Discredits Ethanol, Biodiesel – from Renewable Energy Access (see the original study document here)

· International Resource Costs of Biodiesel & Bioethanol, Dept of Transport, Govt of UK (PDF)

· Energy Balance – from Piedmont Biofuels

· Biofuel, some Numbers – from Grist

· Interesting Blog Comments on Energy Efficiencies of Biofuel and Bio-diesel – Future Pundit (skip the article and see the comments!)

· Biodiesel Experiment (PDF)

· Feasibility of Biodiesel from Waste/Recycled Greases & Animal Fats (PDF)

· The Economic Efficiency of Production & Use of Biodiesel – Report from Estonia (PDF)

· Biodiesel – European Overview (PDF)

· On-farm Biodiesel Production from Waste Vegetable Oil (PDF)

· The Economics of Engine Replacement/Repair for Biodiesel Fuels (PDF)

· Energy Use & Emissions from Bio-fuels – University of California, Davis (PDF)

· Biofuels – Is it Worth Considering? (PDF)

· Growing Biodiesel in North Dakota (PDF)

· Basic Biodiesel Economics – from Entropy Production

· Biodiesel Economics in Brazil (PDF)

· Biofuels around the World – Canadian Renewable Fuels Association

· Biodiesel Education – Economic Considerations – from Iowa State University

· Biodiesel Economics – from University of Alberta, Canada (PDF)

· Biodiesel Production, Costs & Use – Department of Energy, Govt of USA (PDF)

· Biofuel Info from the Government of New Zealand (PDF)

· Cost Implications of Feedstock Combinations for Community Sized Bio-diesel Production (PDF)

· A Study on the Feasibility of Biodiesel Production in Georgia (PDF)

· Biodiesel in British Columbia – a Feasibility Study

· Biodiesel – the Sustainability Dimension – from ATTRA (PDF)

· The Uncertain Future of Bio-diesel – from the Dominion, Canada

· Department of Agricultural Economics – Kansas State University

· Biodiesel – An Industry Poised for Growth? Choices Magazine

· Research Activities on Bio-diesel @ Indian Institute of Petroleum (PPT format)

· Cost Benefit Analysis of Adoption of Biodiesel in Diesel Fuel (PDF)

· Costs of Biodiesel Production – from Govt of New Zealand (PDF)

· Potential Niche Fuel Markets for Biodiesel (PDF)

· Biodiesel – Fuel for Thought, Fuel for Connecticut’s Future (PDF)

· Testing the Biodiesel Bandwagon

· Feasibility of Biodiesel from Waste Recycled Grease and Animal Fats (PDF)

· Ethanol vs Biodiesel vs Gasoline – the Environment Forum

· Industry Argues that Ethanol Delivers – from A Journey to Forever

· Biodiesel Basics – from Utah Biodiesel

· Opportunities in Community-Scale Biodiesel (PDF)

· The Case for Biodiesel – Washington University (PDF)

· Cost of Biodiesel vs Regular Diesel – from Oregon Biofuels

· An Economic Analysis of Small-scale Biodiesel Production (PDF)

· Economics of Jatropha Biodiesel

· Biodiesel – The Sustainability Dimensions (PDF)

· Biodiesel Economics – University of Alberta, Canada (PDF)

· Comparison of LCA & External Cost Analysis for Biodiesel & Diesel (PDF)

· Comparison of the Externalities of the Biodiesel Fuel Chains & Other Fuel Chains (PDF)

· International Resource Costs of Bioethanol & Biodiesel

· Costs of Biodiesel Production – Govt of New Zealand (PDF)

· WA Sustainability Case Studies – Biodiesel

· Problems in Biofuel Utilisation – A Swedish Perspective (PDF)

· Biodiesel – The Sustainability Dimension

· The Real Biofuel Cycles – University of California, Berkeley (PDF)

· Biodiesel Begins to Make Economic Sense – University of Arkansas

· Brazil’s Biofuel Plan is not Sustainable

· Amount of Biodiesel That Could be Produced from Available Land in the UK – An Estimate

· Biodiesel – Bad Idea – Grist.org

Biodiesel & Environment

· How Green is the New Biodiesel Movement?

· Green Technology isn’t Always Green – from USA Today

· Biodiesel & Deforestation

Reducing the Cost of Biodiesel

· Economic Feasibility for Community-scale Farmer Cooperatives for Biodiesel

· Production of Cost-competitive Biodiesel Fuel

Fun Facts – Oil-bearing plants need fertilizers. The most widely used fertilizers are compounds of ammonia, made from natural gas. Thus using oils from plants as biodiesel does not automatically mean less dependence on oil!

Other References

Some interesting sites:

  • Plant Oils Database – provides resources and links for over 200 different plant oils and related plant extracts

  • BDPedia – The Biodiesel WWW Encyclopedia

Agriculture Directories

BDPedia.com, the Biodiesel WWW Encyclopedia, provides links, provides directory and web links resources for the biofuels, biodiesel. It is intended to be useful for research and information as well as for buyers, sellers, manufacturers, traders, suppliers, producers, exporters and importers. It will make an effort to provide biofuel feedstock, plant oil feedstocks, vegetable oil info and link, details on oilseeds, bio-fuel, bio-diesel, bio-fuels, plant oils production and uses, and biofuels trade & market resources, data, statistics such as price, prices, demand-supply for buyer, seller, manufacturer, trader, supplier, exporter and producer