"In only very few countries is the required feedstock available at prices that would presently allow ethanol and biodiesel production to be competitive with transport fuels from crude oil without government support," it said.
"But such support can also create market distortions, the nature and level of which need to be well understood before policies are put in place," said the study, authored jointly by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). And although it forecast an acceleration in world biofuel usage over the next 10 years that would raise demand for maize, wheat, oilseeds and sugar, the trade-offs between food/feed and non-food uses for specific crop sectors were still unclear.
This included changes in the preferred farm-based feedstock used to make biofuels to non-agricultural products such as cellulosic fibres and waste materials, the OECD-FAO study said.
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Categories: alternativeenergy, biofuels, innovation