European union leadership in biofuels regulation: Europe as a normative power?

The rapid emergence of the European Union (EU) as a leader in global environmental politics has led many scholars to argue in favour of the EU being a ‘normative power’ in international relations. This paper critically examines the EU's biofuels policy and evaluates whether its attempts to lead by example and shape international practice in this field could support such arguments. Europe's biofuel policies are evaluated through a sustainable development lens, so as to determine the extent to which it has embraced a holistic approach to sustainability. While not dismissing that the identity of the EU is indeed an explanatory factor and that normative intentions may well be regarded as a motivating force, this study argues that an interest-based perspective on international environmental regulation offers a supplementary view of how an actor's preferences for an international regime are shaped. By erecting barriers aimed at shielding its own inefficient domestic biofuels production the EU is in essence placing trade competitiveness and economic growth above environmental protection, thus permitting sustainability concerns to be addressed only in part

Prospects and technological advancement of cellulosic bioethanol ecofuel production

Energy security, rapid depletion of fossil fuels and the huge greenhouse gas emission from the utilization of fossil fuels are the growing concerns in today's world. Bioethanol is considered as one of the attractive ecofuel due to its environmental sustainability and renewability over fossil fuels. So far cellulosic ethanol (second generation) production has gained attention at commercial scale over the other feedstocks such as first, third and fourth generation as it has no impact on food security. Third and fourth generation bioethanol technologies are in the immature stage and need further research. In this study, an outline of the systematic development of bioethanol production has been presented. The advancements in bioethanol technology and the status of installed commercial/pilot/demonstration scale plants based on lignocellulosic feedstocks all over the world have been highlighted. Finally, we have tried to underline the issues and challenges associated with the commercial scale production of cellulosic ethanol

Reviewing commercial prospects of bioethanol as a renewable source of future energy: An Australian perspective

Akbar, DH ORCiD: 0000-0002-2269-5056; Ashwath, N ORCiD: 0000-0002-4032-4507; Rolfe, JC ORCiD: 0000-0001-7659-7040Currently, the world is in search of bioethanol feedstock that does not compete with the human food supply and prime agricultural land. A native plant of Mexico, Agave tequilana, is one such feedstock. This plant can grow in arid, semiarid, or marginal lands with minimum rainfall and fertilizer and without competing with the current agricultural feedstocks [13, 14]. To date, only first-generation biofuel, especially bioethanol, is used in commercial production. However the second-generation biofuels may produce cost-effective fuels, but this is yet to be demonstrated as this option is still in precommercial or research and development phase [12]. This chapter aims to review the trends of bioethanol production and to explore the key factors affecting the commercial viability of producing first-generation bioethanol, with a particular focus on Australia. This chapter begins with the categorization of biofuels and bioethanol followed by a description of bioethanol feedstocks, the factors affecting commercial viability of bioethanol production in Australia. The chapter concludes with a review of costs and benefits of bioethanol production in Australia