BIOFUEL CONCEPT: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES - A REVIEW

In recent years, bioenergy has drawn attention as a sustainable energy source because of a combination of growing energy needs, rising oil costs, the pursuit of clean, renewable sources of energy and the desire to boost farm incomes in developed countries. There are currently few players in this field; Brazil and the United States together accounts for more than 90 per cent of global ethanol production, whereas Germany and France accounts for more than 65 per cent of global biodiesel production. However, developing countries with sub-tropical climate like India is having a comparative advantage in growing energy rich biomass. The second generation technologies could enable expansion of the range of feedstock used from the traditional sugarcane, maize and rapeseed to grasses and trees that can thrive in less fertile and more drought prone regions. Potentially adverse impacts from a rapid bioenergy expansion include upward pressure on international food prices, making staple crops less affordable for poor consumers, significant adverse effects on both land and water resources and on biodiversity. The bottleneck for producing biofuels is the supply of feed stocks and the competition of these crops for food, feed or fuel. Mitigation of potentially adverse impacts of aggressive increase in biofuel production requires a renewed focus of crop breeding for productivity improvement in crop plants.