Latin America Faced with Tough Biofuels Predicament

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Monday, June 30, 2008

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Latin America Faced with Tough Biofuels Predicament

ARGENTINA - Research and Markets has announced the addition of Frost & Sullivan's new report "Latin America Market for Second and Third Generation Biofuels" to their offering.

This Frost & Sullivan research service titled Latin America Market for Second and Third Generation Biofuels provides an overview of the different emerging practices and technologies in the biofuel market. In this research, Frost & Sullivan's expert analysts offer a complete analysis of key market drivers, restraints, and trends that affect this market.

Latin America Market for Second and Third Generation Biofuels is a White Paper done by Frost & Sullivan's team in Latin America. The study covers the status quo of these technologies in the region. It also describes major projects in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico and point to some relevant factors that deter the development of these technolgies at present time. In its final part, the study details some interesting benefits of these technologies and brings a fresh perspective about the subject.

Research Overview

With oil prices touching $130 per barrel and environment agencies passing stringent regulations aimed at reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, alternative, sustainable, and environment-friendly fuels is the need of the hour. Latin America, with its abundant natural resources for biofuel production, is all set to cash in on this need. Fuel consumption is constantly rising in all countries, irrespective of their economic performance. It is vital for suppliers to maintain the ongoing supply, while lowering costs and minimizing negative social, economic, and environmental impacts. Novel biofuel technologies, such as the second and third generation (2G and 3G), should be explored as potential solutions to these requirements.

"2G and 3G biofuels could greatly help diminish the risk of food-biofuel competition," says the analyst of this research. "New biofuel technologies, employing alternative inputs, create opportunities for utilizing other sources and inputs for biodiesel production." Domestic biofuel production could eliminate or reduce issues related to vegetable oil unavailability and price volatility and thereby, stabilize trade balance. Biofuel production can also alleviate the economic situation in Latin America by creating employment opportunities and lowering energy prices.

2G and 3G Biofuel Technologies Offer Higher Production Yields

Although biofuel production has several benefits, manufacturers are under pressure to increase biofuel output, while avoiding the negative fallouts of high water usage and eventual competition with food crops farmers for land. Biofuel companies are looking for a way out of this situation by constantly developing production techniques that will help them comply with sustainable development requirements, diminish production costs, increase efficiency, and moderate the food-biofuels competition. 2G and 3G technologies are expected to greatly help in this endeavor. "For instance, in the case of sugarcane ethanol, the lignocellulosic process can increase productivity by 25 to 35 percent," notes the analyst. "Therefore, using the same plantation area and sugarcane tonnage, the biofuel producer will be able to produce a much higher volume of fuel."

Although biofuel production requires the feedstock to be replaced rapidly, it outshines other production processes by using non-food crops such as the stalks of wheat and corn, special biomass crops, and waste biomass. "These processes could utilize the waste products of current food-based agriculture to manufacture fuel in a sustained manner," observes the analyst. "Pilot plants have already been established for the production of ethanol from wheat straw and syn-diesel from wood chippings."

TheBioenergySite News Desk