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Macro‐environmental scanning is a first step in strategic planning, which is essential in an emerging industry such as liquid biofuels. The purpose of this paper is to identify the dimensions within which the governments of Brazil, the USA and Germany have constructed the macro‐environment for liquid biofuels over time and to test for similarities between the governments’ constructs.

Documentary research was carried out on official public policies and program documents on the topic of liquid biofuels, covering a ten‐year period from 1997 to 2006. The database consisted of 624 documents from the Brazilian government, 854 from the American government and 168 documents from the German government. Text mining was used to extract information from the texts by applying a specific analysis structure that was built on macro‐environmental dimensions as expressed by their respective dimensional words “d‐words”. The “d‐words” were selected based on their usage frequency in the knowledge fields related to each dimension.

The results indicate that the macro‐environments for liquid biofuels, as configured by the governments under analysis, differ systematically and over time in their emphasis of specific macro‐environmental dimensions.

There are two primary aspects of this study which are original and valuable: the application of text‐mining techniques as a tool for strategic planning and the development of a particular tool to extract knowledge from text documents and to categorize them according to their macro‐environmental dimensions.

Industrial biofuels have been promoted as one solution to energy security, climate change and rural development, however many non‐government organisations argue that national biofuel policies could violate many individuals' right to food. Drawing specifically on the palm oil industry in Malaysia, this opinion piece therefore seeks to provoke debate on the relationship between rights and sustainability and whether emergent business and human rights regulatory frameworks grasp the complexity of business's impact on the right to food.

The commentary draws on an analysis of disclosure made by all palm oil companies listed in the Malaysian stock exchange. The annual, corporate social responsibility reports and web pages for all companies as at June 2011 were reviewed. Each company's disclosures on human rights; sustainability and biofuel were analysed and related this to evidence of government investment. The primary objective in undertaking the content analysis was to explore whether and how the discourse of corporate accountability in the palm oil industry is evolving, specifically in relation to human rights and sustainability.

The paper finds that there is little evidence that rights, the environment and biofuel are being connected at a policy or conceptual level in the palm oil sector in Malaysia. In the majority of disclosures, sustainability and rights appear to be substantively disconnected. In the main, the increase in demand for palm oil that will result from the growth of national biofuel targets is constructed as positive for business. This paper address the regulatory implications of the findings.

This opinion piece contributes toward filling a significant gap in the literature on the inter‐relationship between rights and sustainability. This study will primarily be of value to regulators and policy setters within the palm oil industry in Malaysia. However, the findings may have value to policy setters within the biofuels sector internationally.

The global biofuels sector has expanded rapidly in the past decade, with feedstock expansion penetrating many tropical areas. While the emerging demand for biofuels represents an opportunity for developing countries, it also poses a host of social and environmental risks. Large investments are needed to finance expansion of biofuel and feedstock production, suggesting that the financial sector may have a crucial role to play in mitigating these risks. This paper seeks to explore the role of financiers in expanding biofuel feedstock production and refining in tropical forest‐rich countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America to better understand the role and future potential of responsible finance in the biofuel sector.

The analysis draws on published data and reports from academia, industry, governments, civil society and the press, to quantify the magnitude and source of investments made from 2000‐2010 in 16 countries sampled from “ecoregions” subject to high rates of forest conversion, weak land tenure institutions, and vulnerable communities.

It is found that the case study countries received USD 5.3‐7.3 billion for feedstock production and USD 5.7‐6.7 billion for biofuel refining between 2000 and 2009. This was financed by a mix of entrepreneurs, private banks, investors, governments and multilateral banks. While no clear patterns emerge, foreign banks and institutional investors rank as “important” for most feedstocks and regions. Multilateral banks and domestic institutional investors seem to be the least important. Few financiers have criteria in place in order to ensure sustainable investing practices, and those who do tend to have policies of limited quality.

While much has been written on biofuel sustainability and governance, there is little research that delineates the nature of investment and finance in the sector.

In 2008, a number of Southern African countries cultivated about 900,000 ha of Jatropha, with a number of biodiesel plants ready for production; however, none of the projects succeeded. In 2014, KiOR advanced biofuel Energy Company in the USA announced bankruptcy due to incompetent technology. Studies disclose that the reasons for biofuel plants failure are not only due to lack of incentives and unclear policies but also due to lack of economic feasibility and low production yields. This paper aims to review the techno-economy assessment of second-generation biofuel technologies. The purpose of this paper is to summarize specific techno-economic indicators such as production cost, technology efficiency and process life cycle analysis for advanced biofuel technology and to narrate and illustrate a clear view of what requires assessment to deploy a feasible advanced biofuel technology. This study also reviews assessment of biomass supply chain, feedstock availability and site selection criteria. The review also elaborates on the use of different processes, forecasting and simulation-modeling tools used in different techno-economic analysis studies. The review provides guidance for conducting a technical and economic feasibility study for the advanced biofuels energy business.

The aim of this review is, therefore, to evaluate the techno-economic feasibility studies for the establishment of viable industrial scale production of second-generation biofuels. It does so by grouping studies based on technology selection, feedstock availability and suitability, process simulation and economies as well as technology environmental impact assessment.

In conclusion, techno-economic analysis tools offer researchers insight in terms of where their research and development should focus, to attain the most significant enhancement for the economics of a technology. The study patterns within the scope of techno-economics of advanced biofuel reveal that there is no generic answer as to which technology would be feasible at a commercial scale. It is therefore important to keep in mind that models can only simplify and give a simulation of reality to a certain extent. Nevertheless, reviewed studies do not reach the same results, but some results are logically similar.

The originality of this article specifically illustrates important technical and economic indicators that should be considered when conducting feasibility studies for advance biofuels.

The purpose of this paper is to make a preliminary analysis of the potentials for the adoption of biofuels in Nigeria. This initial analysis aims to capture some of the possibilities in the adoption of biofuel and the promotion of the cultivation of energy crops and processing of biofuels in Nigeria. Taking a step towards biofuel adoption is crucial for Nigeria to remain an important player in the world energy market, as there is a shift in global fossil fuel consumption.

The study adopted a desk review of existing literatures on global biofuels production potentials. A synthesis of data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) secondary database on major energy crops production was also conducted, while the GIS map was generated from GIS data sourced from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Nigeria has immense potential for energy crops cultivation and the production of bioethanol and biodiesel. The existing database shows that Nigeria ranks very high in terms of production of the major energy crops such as soybean, palm oil, sesame and cassava. The rainfall distribution shows that most energy crops can be grown all over Nigeria. Nigeria has the capacity to be a leading exporter of biofuels. The adoption of biofuels can also ease the financial strain relating to the heavy burden of fossil fuel subsidy and also enhance local livelihoods within the production chains.

With the very high potential for biofuel production, the Government as well as private investors should take steps towards investing in agriculture for the production of energy crops and the establishment of biofuel‐processing plants in Nigeria.

The paper is a preliminary analysis of bio‐economic and environmental modeling of the adoption of biofuels in the energy sector in Nigeria. This analysis has opened up the focus of the bigger study, modeling the biological, economic, environmental and other impacts of biofuel adoption.

With the rapid growth and increased consumption of biofuels worldwide, and the multitude of policy decisions supporting this expansion, growing concerns about the biofuels sustainability have arisen. Therefore, the European project “ITAKA”, aiming at supporting the development of aviation biofuels in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner, has devoted considerable effort to take sustainability into account, in a quantitative and qualitative manner. This paper aims to calculate a robust assessment of a life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) for the entire ITAKA value chain.

The calculation for the produced bio jet fuel has been set up using the roundtable on sustainable biomaterials (RSB) European Union (EU) renewable energy directive (RED) methodology, through the online RSB tool. This pathway includes feedstock production, feedstock processing, biofuel production, biofuel distillation and all transport steps involved.

A significant reduction in GHG emissions has been demonstrated, up to 66 per cent emission reduction if one considers a mature pathway for the entire ITAKA biofuel chain.

The camelina oil produced can be sustainable according to RSB and RSB EU RED schemes if the practices defined in the project are applied.

Application of different frameworks (actual vs theoretical) to the ITAKA value chain has aimed at testing and demonstrating the commercial application of the sustainability standards in Europe and the readiness of biofuels in Europe as a major means to decrease GHG emissions in aviation.

Currently, experimental and theoretical work is being performed to ensure that biofuels from microalgae become a reality. However, there is a considerable number of discussions concerning in which processes should be focussed efforts of research and development. The purpose of this paper is to provide decision support not only to help build guidelines of research to be undertaken, but also to contribute to the design of more adequate policy and funding instruments. The key objective of this study is to determine the prospects of employing microalgae into the production of biofuels within a time scale extending to 2030.

The Delphi method is a qualitative research aiming to support strategic future-oriented action, such as policy making in the areas of science and technology. It is especially appropriate in judgment and long-range forecasting (20-30 years) situations, when expert opinions are often the only source of information available, due to a lack of appropriate historical, economic or technical data.

The Delphi method proved to be a successful research method when expert opinions are the main source of information available, due to a lack of appropriate historical, economic or technical data and the outcomes provided a clear outline of the main issues of microalgae biofuels’ market at present and in the future.

The outcomes might not represent the majority of the microalgae experts’ opinion due to the sample size.

The work presented in this paper is especially original. According to the authors’ knowledge, this is the first qualitative Delphi study related to algae biofuels.

This article seeks to address aviation as an emerging biofuel consumer and to discuss sustainability issues and consequences for feedstock production concepts. Biojet fuels have been identified as a promising, readily deployable alternative to fossil‐based aviation fuels. At the same time they are highly criticised as their production may have negative social and environmental impacts. Therefore, the paper aims to identify major sustainability issues and assessment challenges and relate these to the production of biojet fuel feedstock.

Two plant oil production concepts are presented that address the sustainability issues discussed. Both concepts are being investigated within the research project “Platform for Sustainable Aviation Fuels”. A literature‐based overview of sustainability issues and assessment challenges is provided. Additionally, conceptual insights into new plant oil production concepts are presented.

The use of biojet fuels is often hailed as a strategy for the aviation industry to become more sustainable. However, biofuels are not necessarily sustainable and their potential to reduce GHG emissions is highly debated. Several unresolved sustainability issues are identified highlighting the need for improved assessment methods. Moreover, the two concepts presented have the potential to provide sustainably grown feedstock, but further empirical research is needed.

This article addresses researchers and practitioners by providing an overview of sustainability issues and assessment challenges related to biojet fuels. Consequences are identified for two plant oil feedstock concepts: catch cropping in temperate regions and silvopastoral systems in tropical and subtropical regions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of heat capacity and density of biofuels on aircraft engine performance indicated by thrust and fuel consumption.

The influence of heat capacity and density was examined by simulating biofuels in a two-spool high-bypass turbofan engine running at cruise condition using a Cranfield in-house engine performance computer tool (PYTHIA). The effect of heat capacity and density on engine performance was evaluated through a comparison between kerosene and biofuels. Two types of biofuels were considered: Jatropha Bio-synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (JSPK) and Camelina Bio-synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (CSPK).

Results show an increase in engine thrust and a reduction in fuel consumption as the percentage of biofuel in the kerosene/biofuel mixture increases. Besides a low heating value, an effect of heat capacity on increasing engine thrust and an effect of density on reducing engine fuel consumption are observed.

The utilisation of biofuel in aircraft engines may result in reducing over-dependency on crude oil.

This paper observes secondary factors (heat capacity and density) that may influence aircraft engine performance which should be taken into consideration when selecting new fuel for new engine designs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the market impacts of US biofuels and biofuel policies.

Two methods of analysis are employed. The first method looks back in time and estimates what US crop prices would have been during the 2005 to 2009 marketing years under two scenarios. The second method of analysis is forward looking and examines the market impacts of the blender tax credit and mandate on the distribution of prices in the 2011 calendar and marketing year.

The results developed in the previous two sections show that US ethanol policies modestly increased maize prices from 2006 to 2009 and that market impacts of the policies will be larger under tighter market conditions.

More flexible US biofuel policy including removing the blenders tax credit, which does not help US biofuel industry as long as the mandates are in place, and relaxing blending mandates when feedstock supplies are low.

This report makes three contributions to understanding the extent to which US biofuel policies contribute to higher agricultural and food prices. First, estimates of the impact of US ethanol policies on crop and food prices reveal that the impacts of the subsidies were quite modest. The second contribution is to provide estimates of the impact on agricultural commodity prices and food prices from market‐driven expansion of ethanol. The final contribution of this report is improved insight into how current US biofuel policies are expected to affect crop prices in the near future.