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Biodiesel and bioethanol are amongst the most popular alternative fuels on the world market and are often considered as the most promising biofuels, in the short term, to partially substitute conventional diesel and gasoline. Thanks to their renewable nature, they are also (always in the short term) a solution of choice to reduce CO2 emissions in the transportation sector. Finally, they represent in many countries a way of reducing the dependence with respect to crude oil imports and of diversifying agriculture by offering new opportunities.
In spite of the wide recognition of their potential benefits and an increasingly proven technology, liquid biofuels must still face many barriers that are obstacles to their development. Today, liquid biofuels do not represent more than 1% of the vehcile fuels market at the international or the European level.
The present section addresses the issue of the main barriers to biofuels development, the price of biofuels on the wholesale market and directions in the field of research and development (R&D).
Production of biofuels in the world
Availability of resources
Economical aspects
Price of biofuels on the wholesale market
Research and development
The debate "food vs. biofuels"
Location of worldwide second generation biofuel installations
This section finally reports the production of liquid biofuels (bioethanol, biodiesel) worldwide. In particular, it shows the geographic distribution of biofuels production on a map and provides the situation in the first 15 producers in the world, but also in the EU and in Switzerland. The data will be updated every year.
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