Importance of Biofuels in Sustainable Development

This research report explores the significance of biofuels in sustainable development, emphasizing their potential to replace fossil fuels, reduce harmful emissions, and promote long-term environmental sustainability. The study delves into the methods, case studies, advantages, and challenges of biofuels, highlighting the need for further research and government support.

EAP 2
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Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Methods...........................................................................................................................................5
Case study........................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Recommendations............................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10
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Abstract
Biofuels at a rapid pace are becoming an increasingly important source of sustainable energy and
they also render various advantages to climate policies too. This is major because of the potential
of this source of energy to effectively replace the fossil fuels and apart from that, this source of
energy also harbour to a high reduction in the production of harmful gases such as CO2. The
efficiency of this source of energy is not only limited to the raw materials and products but also
the production process of this source of energy is efficient. The raw materials that are cultivated
in order to produce the biofuel have no harmful consequences to the environment.
In the research report provided below the author has analysed the importance of biofuels in the
sustainable development of industries. For this purpose, the author has used a secondary method
of data collection in order to gather the required information. The current usage of this source is
comparatively low which is mainly because of lack of infrastructure and technology for mass
production. With the identification of rapid decrease in the amount of fossil fuels, this
technology is not only promising but also serves as a viable option for long-term sustainability of
the environment (Young & Somerville, 2014).
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Introduction
It has been identified that the usage of fossil fuel has highly increased in past few years the
majority of which is used in transportation activities. The major reason behind this is the
population explosion which has also lead to increment in purchase of vehicles as well as of the
transportation facilities which required fossil fuel consumptions. It should be noted that if the
consumption is continued on the current rate then it is expected that this source will be
completely depleted in next 20 years. This makes it essential to find new sources of energy in
which biofuel is a promising option (Johansson & Ryderberg, 2017).
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Methods
The information gathered that has been presented in this report has been collected through
researching from various sources out of which the major source of information gathering is the
qualitative data. The author has conducted various researched from published journals, books,
articles and research papers in order to collect the information on sustainable biofuels and the
scope of this technology.
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Case study
Biofuels can be defined as the fuel which is derived from biomass which can be found in many
biological materials and organisms. The living organisms have their metabolic bio-products
which can successfully be used as biomasses. There are various bi-fuels which are currently
being used with high scope. These fuels are:
 Biodiesel
 Bioethanol
 Biomethane
These fuels can be burnt effectively with low residue which is the major advantage of these
fuels. The combustion of fuels produces power which can be easily used to run machines,
vehicles or to power the fuel cells. The content of these biofuels is around 80% biomass product.
Just like petrol and coal, biofuel is also a source of stored energy which can easily be used by the
user in order to produce energy. Another advantage of using biofuels as compared to other
sources of energy is that this form of energy is biodegradable which makes the usage of this safe
for the environment. A large amount of these fuels comes from crops like corn and sugarcane
and another source that is used in production of biofuels comes from industries, forestry and
household. It should be noted that rice and timber are also a major proportion of raw materials
that are used in order to produce biofuels (Brynolf, 2014).
With the growing interest of industrialists for using the renewable technology, the researches in
the use and scope of this source is being carried out on a large scale. This has resulted in usage of
microalgae as a source of energy. The initial use of this source was identified in the early days of
automobile industry where a German inventor ran his combustion engine by merely using
ethanol. In the recent times the usage and importance of biofuels has increased significantly and
many economies around the work such as US, UK, China, Russia etc, are now inclining towards
this as a replacement of traditional fossil fuels. The US has aimed at reducing the exports from
middle east up to 75% which is a significant amount of fuel considering the fuel requirements of
the nation (Blanchard et. al., 2015).
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It has also been found that this source of energy is not only cost-effective in terms of
consumption but is easily transportable too. As biofuels are biodegradable in nature, they are safe
to handle and easily transportable. The toxic levels of this is even less than the table salts. The
safety of this can be identified from their flashpoints as they have a high flashpoint of 3000 F as
compared to other fossil fuels such as diesel which has the flashpoint of as low as 1250 F.
Because of this safety feature of biomass energy the issue of fires in vehicles, industrial accidents
can be reduced to significant levels. Apart from this, the process of producing this source of
energy is also much safer than the production process of fossil fuels and nuclear energy which
makes this source of energy the safest of all. In the process of combustion the biofuels produce
very low levels of hydrocarbon such as carbon monoxide thus helping to solve the issue of smog
in urban centres. This has led to increase in usage of this source of technology within emerging
economies too such as India (Braga, 2017).
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Conclusion
Thus from the research case study provided above it can be concluded that the usage of this
source of energy is very promising and can lead to sustainable development of the economies.
With the development of the industry and increment in population it has been identified that
there is a seed of new and effective source of sustainable energy which further increases the
scope of this energy source.
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Recommendations
From the discussion presented above, the importance and the advantages that are obtained from
using biofuels can be said that these source of energy results to high flash point which is safe to
use and helps in increasing the scope of its usage. Though safe, the production process of same is
at times costly which may be the greatest disadvantage. This is mainly because of low amount of
researches and development in this sector of energy. It is required by the government of the
major economies to invest in the development of the infrastructure that is required to produce
this energy on mass levels. This will not only help in reduction of reliance on the traditional
fossil fuels but will also help in reducing the carbon combustion on high levels. At this point of
time, it cannot be said that this source of energy is the future of fuels as it required further
researches and also the scope of this is required to be increased. The researches should be
continuous and it would be appreciated if there are more generations of biofuel that appears. This
will help in application of this energy more effectively and more widely. It is also required by the
government to take necessary measures to avoid deforestation as this is the major source of
generation of this energy fuel (Collet et. al., 2014).
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References
 Blanchard, R.E., Bhattacharya, S.C., Chowdhury, M., Chowdhury, B., Biswas, K. and
Choudhury, B.K., 2015. A review of biofuels in India: challenges and opportunities.
 Braga, S.L., 2017. Use of biofuels in compression ignition engines–Potential of diesel-
biodiesel-ethanol blends (Doctoral dissertation, PUC-Rio).
 Brynolf, S., 2014. Environmental assessment of present and future marine fuels (Doctoral
dissertation, Chalmers University of Technology).
 Collet, P., Lardon, L., Hélias, A., Bricout, S., Lombaert-Valot, I., Perrier, B., Lépine, O.,
Steyer, J.P. and Bernard, O., 2014. Biodiesel from microalgae–Life cycle assessment and
recommendations for potential improvements. Renewable Energy, 71, pp.525-533.
 Johansson, S. and Rydberg, T., 2017. Is an increased use of biofuels the road to
sustainability?. The European Physical Journal Plus, 132(2), p.66.
 Youngs, H. and Somerville, C., 2014. Best practices for biofuels. Science, 344(6188),
pp.1095-1096.
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