Biofuels – Which is the Most Economic One?

Abstract

Taking an oil price of US$ 60 per barrel both biodiesel and bioethanol produced in Europe from wheat are not profitable. Oil producers' high margins are solely due to current mineral oil tax concessions. At present, biomass-to-liquids (BTL) fuel cannot be produced competitively. At an oil price of US$ 60, only bioethanol and biobutanol produced on a large scale from lignocellulose-containing raw materials have the potential to be produced competitively. Analysis of the technologies in this field shows that there are interesting new technological developments in Europe for the hydrolysis, fermentation and purification steps.