Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 50 (2015) 9911003

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser

An overview of biofuels policies and industrialization in the major

biofuel producing countries
Yujie Su a, Peidong Zhang b,n, Yuqing Su c
a

Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Qingdao 266101, China
College of Environment and Safety Engineering, Qingdao University of Science & Technology, Qingdao 266042, China
c
State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
b

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 13 February 2014
Received in revised form
16 January 2015
Accepted 3 April 2015

Biofuels are important substitute for fossil fuel with the advantages such as susatainablility, environmental friendly and good adaptability. In the last 10 years, biofuels development has been driven by the
government policies. Many countries and areas have authorized laws and regulations to ensure the
sustainable development of biofuels. By the support of the government, some biofuel projects have been
commercialized. This paper reviews the national biofuel policies and strategy plans of the world's
leading states, the government has provided sustained and cost-sharing privileges decreasing subsidies
for the whole process from feedstock, from experimentation to industrialization of bioenergy industry in
order to reduce investment risk. As a result of these supports, bioethanol and biodiesel have
commercialized in several states, aviation biofuels are developing rapidly in the support of world's
major airlines and US military. While there is political debate over the impact of biofuels on climate
change and food security, it would be a challenge for the policy makers to continue trends of biofuels
production while complying with sustainable production requirements.
& 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords:
Biofuels policy
Biofuels industry
Ethanol
Biodiesel
Aviation biofuels

Contents
1.
2.

3.

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 992
Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 992
2.1.
The United States. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 992
2.1.1.
Objectives of the biofuel development in the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 992
2.1.2.
Main policy for the development of biofuels in the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 992
2.1.3.
Project supports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 993
2.2.
European Union bioenergy policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 995
2.2.1.
Goal guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 995
2.2.2.
Promotion of biofuels development through sustainable development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 995
2.2.3.
Industrial support and tax subsidies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 995
2.2.4.
Development of the investment channels for renewable energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 996
2.3.
Germany's bioenergy policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 996
2.3.1.
Objectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 996
2.3.2.
Germany's biofuels policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 997
2.3.3.
By nancing project to facilitate the development of bioenergy technology R&D and its commercialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 997
2.4.
Brazilian bioenergy policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 998
2.5.
China's bioenergy policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 998
Industrialization of biofuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 999
3.1.
Bioethanol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 999
3.2.
Biodiesel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1000
3.3.
Aviation biofuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1000
3.4.
Algae biofuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1001

Corresponding author. Tel.: 86 532 80662790; fax: 86 532 80662778.

E-mail addresses: brendasu@163.com (Y. Su), eeesc@163.com (P. Zhang).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.04.032
1364-0321/& 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

992

Y. Su et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 50 (2015) 9911003

4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1002
Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1002
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1002

1. Introduction
Due to the development of economic globalization, the output and
consumption of transportation fuels increase continually. Global
primary energy consumption increased by 2.3% in 2013, and global
oil consumption grew by 1.4 million barrels per day (b/d) or 1.4% to
91.3 million barrels per day, while total world proved oil reserves was
1687.9 billion barrels at the end of 2013, only sufcient to meet 53.3
years of global production [1]. Climate change is a vital challenge now,
and by the estimate of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), the global temperature will rise by 1.45.8 1C. The
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
set the goal of keeping global temperature rises to be below 2 1C in
2012 [2], which needs to decrease the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission.
Bioenergy is a low-carbon and sustainable energy, and is well adaptable for existing fuel storage systems and transportation equipment.
Biofuels have already covered 2% of the total transportation fuels, and
it is expected that the proportion of biofuels will be promoted rapidly
with the development of science and technology [1].

2. Policy
Policy support must be the main driven force for the sustainable and healthy development of biofuels industry at the beginning, because biofuels industry is at the developing phase, it is less
competitive than traditional energy in terms of high production
cost, immature technology, poor supporting infrastructure, etc.,
but by the support of the government policy, in the last 10 years,
the production of biofuels has increased dramatically, and from
2003 to 2013, the world fuel ethanol production experienced an
increase from 6.4 to 23.4 billion gallons [3].
2.1. The United States
The United States, as a large producer of industrial commodities
and supplier of agricultural products, is world's leader of the development of biofuels. The main driving forces for the development of
biomass in the United States are: (1) to reduce dependence on oil
imports and guarantee oil security; (2) to create more employment
opportunities and develop agriculture; (3) to promote the development of low-carbon and sustainable economy; and (4) to explore new
industries and new technologies so as to form a situation of
diversied energy sources and production supply.
2.1.1. Objectives of the biofuel development in the United States
In order to guarantee the national energy security, the United
States put forward positive goals and clearly scheduled the development of biofuels, which greatly facilitated the development of
biofuels. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 [4] established a renewable
fuel standard (RFS), which was expanded by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA2007) [5]. The RFS required that
the use of renewable fuels should be increased from 9 billion gallons
per year in 2008 up to 36 billion gallons per year in 2022 (Fig. 1).
EISA2007 also set a strict limit on the total amount of greenhouse gas
emissions to ensure environmental friendly and sustainability during
biofuels producing processes. EISA2007 dened the advanced biofuel
as biofuels produced from non-corn feedstock and with 50% lower
lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions relative to gasoline. EPA is required

to set the renewable fuel standards each year based on the R&D and
production of biofuels and assessments of production capability from
industry. For example, the output goal of cellulosic ethanol was
adjusted to 17 million gallons in 2014 from the 6 million gallons of
2013 [6]. In the long term, the renewable fuel standard may be proven
even more signicant than tax incentives formulated by the government in promoting the use of biofuels [7] (Table 1).
2.1.2. Main policy for the development of biofuels in the United
States
In order to promote the development of biofuels, the United States
has authorized a series of laws and regulations related to renewable
energy in recent years, including tax policies as well as nancial
supports and loan guarantees for R&D of biofuels and construction of
biofuel plants. There are already more than 10 legislations related to
renewable energy eld so far. The Energy Tax Act of 1978 [8] passed
as early as in 1978 provided investment tax credits for the renewable
energy investors. The introduction of new laws and regulations is not
only a supplement or adjustment to the originals, but more closely
reect the latest research and development results of technology and
economic efciency. In order to stimulate the development of new
technology for the second and third generation biofuels, EISA2007
expanded renewable fuels standards, released advanced biofuels
development objectives and provided $550 million funding for
reducing greenhouse gas emissions, R&D and commercial application
of advanced biofuels [5].
To spur the low-carbon economy development, create more
jobs and reduce the dependence on foreign oil to guarantee the
nation energy security, Obama stated a series of new policies after
he was elected as president in 2009. The American Clean Energy
and Security Act of 2009 issued in 2009 was consisted of four
parts: clean energy, energy efciency, reduction of global warming
pollution and transition to clean energy. The bill announced that
the investment on clean energy technology and energy efciency
technology reached $190 billion, of which $90 billion for source
efciency and renewable energy, $60 billion for carbon capture
and sequestration technology. The bill also set a limit on the total
GHG emissions in the United States as well as targets for renewable power generation by 2020 [9]. In the spring of 2012, President
Obama started the All-of-the-above energy policy, to make a
long-term strategy that uses every available source of energy
including oil, gas, wind, solar, nuclear, biofuels, and more. In this
policy, the president would propose a $2 billion program to aid
research on alternative vehicle fuels like biofuels and fuel cells.
The U.S. biofuels policy mainly supports the R&D and industrialization of bioethanol and biodiesel. Gasoline suppliers who
blend ethanol with gasoline are eligible for a tax credit of 45 cents
per gallon of ethanol through the end of 2011 according to the
Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) [7]. On August 2012,
the U.S. Senate Finance Committee announced to provide tax
credits of $1.01 per gallon for cellulosic biofuel production, which
extended to algae fuels, and of $1 per gallon for biodiesel. The tax
credit policy lasted for 1 year, which was actually traced back from
December 31, 2011 to December 31, 2013. The legislations related
to bioenergy are shown in Table 2.
The U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other government departments initiatively involved in
strategic research of biofuels formulated a detail program ranging
from bioenergy raw materials to bioenergy products, and released

Y. Su et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 50 (2015) 9911003

993

40

Billon gallons

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Cellulosic biofuel

0.1

0.25

0.5

1.75

4.25

5.5

8.5

10.5

13.5

16

Non cellulosic biofuel

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.5

1.75

2.5

3.5

4.5

4.5

4.5

Biomass -based diesel

0.5

0.65

0.8

Conventional Biofuel

10.5

12

12.6

13.2

13.8

14.4

15

15

15

15

15

15

15

15

Cellulosic biofuel
Non cellulosic biofuel
Biomass -based diesel
Conventional Biofuel

Fig. 1. EISA renewable fuel volume requirements (billion gallons).

Source: EPA.

Table 1
Proposed volumes for 2013.
Source: EPA.

Cellulosic
biofuel
Biomass-based
diesel
Advanced
biofuel
Renewable fuel

Actual
volume

Ethanol equivalent
volume

Proposed percentage
standards (%)

6 million
gal
1.28 billion
gal
2.75 billion
gal
6.55 billion
gal

7.3 million gal

0.04

1.92 billion gal

1.13

2.75 billion gal

1.62

15.2 billion gal

9.74

related reports and roadmaps. In 2012, President Obama's Administration released the National Bioeconomy Blueprint to lay out
strategic objectives that expedited to increase the production of
renewable fuels and bio-based products, expand application areas
of biofuels, and continually develop electrofuels, carbon dioxide
liquid fuels, etc. [10]. The initiatives taken by the U.S. government
for the development of biofuel technologies are shown in Table 3.

2.1.3. Project supports

The United States places great importance on systematical
funding policy. The government released a couple of projects,
including Biomass Program, Biomass Research and Development
Initiative (BRDI), Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), Small
Business Technology Transfer (STTR), etc., to provide sustained and
cost-sharing amount decreasing subsidies for the whole process
from feedstock, experimentation to industrialization of bioenergy
industry in order to reduce investment risk. The funding policy
included: funding laboratory R&D in basic research; providing the
subsidies of 5080% for technology R&D and industrialization
pilots to deal with the risk of high capital needs and uncertain
future markets, providing loan guarantee, or even 30% construction funds for the initial commercial plants. These strategies are to
make sure the continually technology R&D activities and technical

reserves which are the essential reasons for the United States
leading the world's bioenergy technology [11].
In 2000, the U.S. government initiated Biomass Plan. In 2003,
the U.S. Department of Energy and Department of Agriculture
together outlined the Biomass Multi-Year Program Plan (MYPP).
The mission of the MYPP was helping transform the nation's
renewable and abundant biomass resources into cost-competitive,
high-performance biofuels, bioproducts, and biopower. The goals
of the Program were to develop, demonstrate, and deploy technologies for advanced biofuels production from lignocellulose and
algal biomass, enable the production of biofuels nationwide and
reduce dependence on oil [12]. BRDI jointly managed by DOE and
USDA provides stable funds on bioenergy R&D for private sectors,
national laboratories, universities and other institutes, of which
funding the most were process and transfer projects, followed by
raw material production projects.
SBIR and STTR focus on funding for the promotion of advanced
technologies from laboratory to industrialization. Both have
already been implemented for 30 years. HR 1540 Bill passed by
the U.S. Congress in December 2011 prolonged the expiring
programs of SBIR and STTR 6 years, and annually increased the
total R&D funds on SBIR program from the original 2.5% to 3.2% by
2017 [11]. Since 2011, SBIR/STTR has mainly supported the industrialization of algae-based biofuels. The Biorenery Assistance
Program was created through the 2008 Farm Bill and was
administered by USDA Rural Development. It provides loan guarantees to viable commercial-scale facilities to develop new and
emerging technologies for advanced biofuels. Since the start of the
Obama Administration, the USDA Biorenery Assistance Program
has provided approximately $684 million in assistance to support
biofuels projects in eight states.
From 1970 to 2011, DOE had invested total amount of $3.7
billion in promoting the industrialization of bioenergy technologies, in which more than $718 million was provided by the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, covering four
key areas (shown in Table 4).
In 2007, the U.S. Department of Energy announced to provide
over one billion dollars for multi-year R&D biofuels projects to
support the technology deployment and key technology R&D. The
investment in biomass projects has reached $1.19 billion since 2008.
In order to realize the industrialization of bioenergy technologies and

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Y. Su et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 50 (2015) 9911003

Table 2
Legislations of bioenergy.
Time

Dept.

Initiatives

Congress

Biomass Research and Development Act of

2000
Sun Grant Research Initiative Act of 2003
American Jobs Creation Act of 2004
Energy Policy Act of 2005

2000
2003
2004
Aug. 2005

2007
Sept. 2007
Dec. 2007
2009

Key points

Executive
Strengthening Federal Environmental,
Order 13423 Energy, and Transportation Management
Congress
The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of
2008
Congress
Energy Independence and Security Act of
2007
Congress
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009

2009

American Clean Energy and Security Act

Proposed to stimulate the development of renewable energy industry through nancial

instruments; rst introduced clean renewable energy bonds mechanisms to raise funds for
public renewable energy; introduced loan guarantee mechanism to provide nancial support
for the commercialization of renewable energy technologies
Set federal energy efciency goals by 2015
Encouraged to carry out the research of renewable energy and special crops, to initiate new
biomass reserve projects etc.
Modied and supplement renewable fuel standard; proposed advanced biofuels
development goals
The government should provide allowance for clean production technologies in the next ve
years; encouraged the development of national renewable energy equipment manufacturing
by means of the investment tax credit policy
Addressed tackling global climate change package, so that the whole society pay more
attention on the development of renewable energy

Table 3
Government Initiatives for the development of biofuel technologies.
Time

Dept.

Initiatives

Fields

Dec. 2002 USDOE Energy

Oct. 2007

Biomass technology roadmap

Roadmap for bioenergy and biobased products in the United States

Nov.2010
Feb. 2006
May
2008
May 2011
Jun. 2006
Apr. 2007
Feb. 2007
Sept.
2008
May
2009
Jun. 2010
Mar. 2011

NREL
USDOE
NREL
Bush's Administration
USDOE and USDA

Current state of the U.S. ethanol industry

Advanced Energy Program
Global agricultural supply and demand: factors contributing to the recent increase in food commodity Social effect
prices
Process design and economics for biochemical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol
Breaking the biological barriers to cellulosic ethanol
Production process
State-level workshops on ethanol for transportation
20% program in 10 years
National Biofuels Action Plan

USDOE

Biomass Multi-year Project Plan of 2009

USDOE
Congress
USDA

USDOE
Obama's
Administration
Aug. 2011 USDOE
Feb. 2012 Obama's
Administration
Apr. 2012 Obama's
Administration

Product development
roadmap
Industries

National algal biofuels technology roadmap

Blueprint for a secure energy future

Raw materials

U.S. billion-ton update-biomass supply for a bioenergy and bioproducts industry

All-of-the-above energy strategy

Raw materials supply

National Bioeconomy Blueprint

Table 4
Four key development areas of American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.
Source: DOE.
Development areas

Amount of
Development goals and research points
funding ($ million)

Integrated pilot-scale and

demonstration-scale biorenery
projects
Commercial-scale biorenery projects

509

To verify integrated biorenery technology, so that the private nancing commercial-scale production
can fully apply it

82

Basic research in key projects

107

Bioethanol research

20

To provide additional investment in former selected projects of advanced biorening demonstration or

commercial-scale projects, so as to reduce the risk that may be encountered in the development and
deployment of new areas. These funds will shorten the construction period, help to start the projects
early and speed up the debugging process
To support the key technologies for transformation, high efciency catalysts, microorganisms and raw
materials
To adapt vehicles for using E85 fuel; to evaluate the effect of blend fuels with high ethanol content on
conventional vehicles; to update the existing infrastructure to meet the requirements of E85 fuel

Y. Su et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 50 (2015) 9911003

establish economically viable biorenery plants, the investment in

integrated biorenery technologies was more than 50% of total
amount of investment between the years of 2008 and 2010. The
DOE started to invest in biorenery plants in 2011, with amount of
$54 million. Since 2013, the DOE has funded more than $100 million
for bioenergy projects, including bio-oil demonstration, R&D of algae
transportation fuels and military biofuels.

995

target accordingly, while the percentage of 10% share of renewable

energy in transport fuels consumption is the minimum objective,
which has to be achieved by all member states. The objective plays
important role for the promotion of the use of bioenery especially
biofuels in transport [15]. The objectives of member states in
terms of the share of renewable energy under the Directive 2009/
28/EC are shown in Table 5.

2.2. European Union bioenergy policy

The primary motivations of the development of biofuels in EU
are energy security, greenhouse gas emissions reduction, sustainable development and promotion of rural/agriculture development. The measures for the government to guide clean energy
development are setting renewable energy goals, supporting the
industry, taxes subsidies, funding large R&D projects and demonstration projects.
2.2.1. Goal guide
As early as in 2003, the Directive on the Promotion of the Use of
Biofuels or Other Renewable Fuels for Transport (2003/30/EC) set
goals that the share of biofuels in the vehicle fuels consumption
should reach 2% in 2005, and 5.75% in 2010 [13], while only
Austria, Germany, France, Czechoslovakia and Sweden achieved
[14] the goals.
The Directive on the Promotion of Renewable Energy (2009/
28/EC) (RES) passed by EU in 2009 legislated the development
objectives of bioenergy, overall in 202020 objectives: by 2020,
GHG emissions will be reduced by 20% compared to 1990; the
basic energy consumption will be reduced by 20%; and the share of
renewable energy (including bioenergy) in overall energy consumption will be 20%. It endorsed specially a mandatory 10%
minimum target for the share of renewable energy (mainly
biofuels) in transport energy consumption by 2020. These objectives were of great signicance for the development of bioenergy
industry in EU because bioenergy in EU has a high share as 60% in
renewable energy. The general target of this Directive is to achieve
a 20% share of renewable energy in the gross nal consumption of
energy. Each member state has the right to decide the national
Table 5
Objectives of Member States in terms of the share of renewable energy by 2020.
Country

Share of energy from

renewable sources in
gross nal
consumption of
energy
2005
(%)

Country

2020 target
(%)

Share of energy from

renewable sources in
gross nal
consumption of
energy
2005
(%)

2.2.2. Promotion of biofuels development through sustainable

development
EU has begun to focus on the impact of bioenergy development on
the environment from 1990s, and the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997
further promoted the EU's concern for the environment issues, and
prompted EU to release the White Paper of 1997 [16]. Since then the
mitigation of climate change has become an important driving factor
for EU's policymaking and biofuels development. In order to accomplish the objectives of greenhouse gas emissions reduction and
sustainable development, the EU Council issued in 2009 the Bill of
the Promotion and Use of Energy from Renewable Sources to put
forward the environmental sustainability criteria for biofuels. In order
to achieve the emission reduction targets, the Renewable Energy
Directive (2009/28/EC) and the Fuel Quality Directive (2009/30/EC)
[15] clearly dened the environmental sustainability criteria for biofuels. Directive 2009/28/EC requires the reduction of the greenhouse
gas emissions for the projects using biofuels to reach 35%, 50% by 2017,
and 60% for the new projects set up after 2017. The Directive also
formulated assessment methods for land-use change and carbon
dioxide emissions. These standards were implemented from December
2010, and applied to the EU's assets and all imported biofuels.
The EU released on March 2011 a Roadmap for Moving to a
Competitive Low Carbon Economy in 2050 [17]. The Roadmap set
general targets for competitive low-carbon economy: the amount
of greenhouse gas emissions in EU region should be reduced by
40% by 2030, 60% by 2040, and 80% by 2050 compared to 1990
through strengthening the R&D of low-carbon technologies and
implementing the energy efciency plan. The 2050 Energy Roadmap issued on November 15 2011 determined the pathway of the
realization of carbon emission reduction targets, namely by
improving energy efciency, development of renewable energy,
nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage technology [18].
The European Commission issued the Innovating for Sustainable Growth: a Bioeconomy for Europe in February 2012, aimed at
the promotion of the EU economic transformation into using more
sustainable renewable energy. The development of bioecomony in
EU mainly focuses on 7 areas, including biorenery, bioenergy,
biochemicals , bioplastics, etc. [19].

2020 target
(%)

Belgium
Bulgaria
Czech
Republic
Denmark
Germany
Estonia
Ireland
Greece
Spain
France

2.2
9.4
6.1

13
16
13

Luxembourg
Hungary
Malta

0.9
4.3
0.0

11
13
10

17.0
5.8
18.0
3.1
6.9
8.7
10.3

30
18
25
16
18
20
23

2.4
23.3
7.2
20.5
17.8
16.0
6.7

14
34
15
31
24
25
14

Italy
Cyprus
Latvia

5.2
2.9
32.6

17
13
40

Netherlands
Austria
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovenia
Slovak
Republic
Finland
Sweden
United
Kingdom

28.5
39.8
1.3

38
49
15

Lithuania

15.0

23

2.2.3. Industrial support and tax subsidies

Based on the Directive 2003/30/EC and Directive 2003/96/EC,
the entities that use fuels mixed with liquid biofuels can claim for
the EU's minimum excise tax exemption within 6 years. At the
same time Member States were allowed to develop the national
biofuel tax incentives which should get EU's permission in order to
avoid cut-throat competition [20].
EU implements quota system on renewable energy used in
power grid, transport and heating systems. The energy suppliers
can achieve the quota goals by use of actually green energy (such
as biofuels) or purchase of equal amount of green certicates
from renewable energy suppliers. For example, it is quota requirement that the EU regulated use of renewable energy fuels in
transport sector should reach 10% by 2020. Parts of the EU
renewable energy support policies as Table 6.

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Y. Su et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 50 (2015) 9911003

Table 6
Parts of the EU renewable energy support policies.
Time Directive Key points

Measures

2001 2001/
77/EC
2003 2003/
30/EC
2003 2003/
96/EC
2003 2003/
54/EC
2009 2009/
28/EC

Directive on the promotion of the production of renewable

power in internal electricity market
Directive on the promotion of the use of biofuels and other
renewable fuels for transport
Directive on the restructuring the Community framework
for the taxation of energy products and electricity
Directive on the rules for the internal market in electricity

Set the targets that renewable energy share of 12% in energy consumption and 22.1% in
electricity consumption for Member States by 2010
The share of biofuels in vehicle fuel consumption should reach 2% by 2005, and 5.75% by
2010

Directive on the promotion of the use of energy from

renewable sources

Brought forward the general framework for the promotion of the use of renewable energy,
so as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote cleaner transportation
Proposed 202020 plan.
Released GHG schemes.
Encouraged the development of the biofuels with greater reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions.
Released taxation policy for electricity and gas grids

2.2.4. Development of the investment channels for renewable energy

2.2.4.1. Government's R&D and demonstration projects. EU coordinates
the capital and R&D efforts of Member States to actively promote the
R&D and innovation of bioenergy technologies through large-scale
R&D and demonstration projects. The EU's important technology
programs include EU- Framework Programmes for Research and
Technological Development (EU-FP) and Horizon 2020. EU-FP was
one of the world's largest ofcial science and technology program,
starting from the FP1 in 1984 to the FP7 in the end of 2013. The FP6
launched a large-scale integrated project aiming to develop the
second-generation biofuels used in vehicles. The FP6 provided 20
million to enable a number of large-scale biorenery demonstration
plants, especially in the demonstration projects of ethanol production
derived from forestry and agriculture residues as well as organic
waste [21]. On 1st January 2007, the EU Commission issued the FP7
(20032013), with total budget of 51 billion, and including 2.35
billion for the investment in energy-related projects [22].
On July 2012, the latest support schemes of FP7 were released
that a series of projects related to bioenergy were distributed in
the different classication of Energy, KBBE, ERA-NET and Transportation. FP7 mainly focused on the scale production and the
establishment of demonstration plants of bioenergy projects,
including the demonstration-scale production of aviation biofuels.
The purpose was to support the construction of aviation fuel
demonstration plants using sustainable biological raw materials
such as algae, the European bioenergy industry demonstration
projects, and the development of microalgae rening plants using
carbon dioxide as raw materials.
On November 2011, the EU Commission announced on November
2011 the Horizon 2020 the Framework Programme for Research and
Innovation, and permitted it in November 2013, which would run
7 years from 2014 to 2020 with an 80 billion budget. Horizon 2020
as a successor of FP7 will continually implement 202020 climateenergy goals. It covers all research and innovation funding currently
provided through the Framework Programme for Research and
Technical Development, the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and the European Institute of Innovation and
Technology (EIT), highlights the important role of science and
technology innovation, aimed at the integration of the research
resources of Member States, improving the efciency of research,
promoting the scientic and technological innovation, boost of
economic growth and increase job opportunities. According to the
budget, Horizon 2020 will fund 6.5 billion for the development of
green energy technologies such as affordable low-carbon power
generation technologies and renewable fuels technologies.
In addition, the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET
Plan) issued in 2008 by the EU, supporting each other with FP7 and
Horizon 2020, requires the establishment of a European strategic

energy technology group to harmonize the policies and programs of

the EU and member states. The Low-Carbon Technology Development
Roadmap of 20102020 and the corresponding investment plan
released in 2009, supporting SET Plan, would call for $9 billion to
invest over the next 10 years in bioenergy R&D and the construction
of about 30 bioenergy pilots across Europe [23]. The European
Industrial Bioenergy Initiative (EIBI) released in 2010 addresses the
bioenergy conversion technology roadblock of large-scale commercialization for sustainable biomass resources, to accomplish the largescale development and utilization of advanced biofuels which mostly
consisted of second-generation biofuels [24]. The EU has invested tens
of millions of euro for R&D of bioenergy technology process through
these plans.
2.2.4.2. The emissions quota auction funds are invested in renewable
energy under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The European
Commission launched NER300 on November 2010 the world's
largest funding program for innovative low-carbon energy
commercial demonstration projects, which provides to set aside
300 million allowances coming from the emissions quota auction
funds under the New Competition Reserve (NER) in the EU
emissions trading system (ETS). According to the current market
price of emission quotas, the program, worth about 4.5 billion,
becomes the world's largest such kind of investment plan [25]. In
2012, NER300 funded amount of 2.923.37 million, at least 15%
funding from ETS, for ve projects of innovative renewable energy
technologies. The new competitive reserves candidates for award
decisions announced in July 2012, among the top ve priorities,
four for bioenergy projects [18].
2.3. Germany's bioenergy policy
2.3.1. Objectives
As the environment was ruthless exploited, confronted the oil
crises last century, Germany was aware of the necessary of
changes to protect the environment [26]. The development of
bioenergy in Germany started very early. Germany has the highest
level of development of bioenergy among the EU Member States.
The federal government made mandatory decision that from
January 2004 not exceeding 5% of biofuels should be mixed in
gasoline and diesel. The National Renewable Energy Action Plans
(NREAP) passed in 2010 set a binding target that the share of
renewable energies in gross nal energy consumption should be
18% by 2020 (that was 10% in 2009). The Action Plans also gave the
specic development goals: the share of renewable energies in the
heating/cooling sectors will be 15.5%, in the transport sector 13.2%,
while in the electricity sector it will reach to 38.6% [27].

Y. Su et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 50 (2015) 9911003

In order to accelerate the development of renewable energy in

Germany, the Federal Government at the EU's Climate and Energy
Summit brought forth the goals of 2020 for the share of renewable
energies in gross nal energy consumption. The goals include: the
share of renewable energy in electricity production is to be
increased to at least 30% by 2020; to increase the use of biofuels
in transport sector with the purpose of reduction of greenhouse
gas emissions, and the bioenergy quota will be based on net
greenhouse gas reductions from 2015; by increasing the share of
biofuels in overall fuel consumption to achieve the goal of 7% of
net greenhouse gas reductions by 2020 (equivalent to approximately 12% energy content); biofuels mixed in oil and diesel
should reach 20% volume by 2020; the contribution of renewable
energy to heat supply is to be increased to 12% by 2020. On
January 1, 2012 the amendment of the Renewable Energy Sources
Act (EEG) has come into force. It aims at reaching the following
minimum shares of renewable energy in electricity supply:35% by
2020, 50% by 2030, 65% by 2040, and 80% by 2050. A number of
further supporting measures outside the EEG are taken, for
biomass facilities tariffs decrease by 1015% on average, compared
to the EEG 2009 [28].
In April 2009, the German Government Cabinet enacted the
National Biomass Action Plan. The Action Plan proposed the
overall strategies and action areas of the continuation for the
promotion of biomass development and utilization in 2020 in
Germany. The Plan dened clearly targets for the proportion of
renewable energy in different energy consuming sectors [29] as
shown in Table 7. The German government launched a long-term
strategic energy program (The Federal Government's Energy Concept of 2010) in 2010 to make clearly the development goal of the
accomplishment of energy transformation by 2050, propose to
close all nuclear power plants by 2020 and increase annually the
share of the renewable energies in nal energy consumption to
60% by 2050. The key objectives are shown in Table 8.

2.3.2. Germany's biofuels policy

The German Government enacted on August 2011 the Renewable Energy Law 2010 Amendment to ensure the realization of
renewable energy objectives. The new Amendment pays more
attention on the market competitiveness of renewable energy,
proposes to actively use the biomass properties such as storability,
exibility and stability to balance the instability of wind power
and solar energy, and targets the improvement of utilization of

997

renewable energy in heating, electricity and motor sectors. The

Renewable Energy Source Act (EEG) issued in 2000 is the world's
rst legislation with the provision of renewable energy feed-in
tariffs. The power generated from renewable energy facilities must
be fed in into the grid preferentially, and receives a 20-year xed
feed-in tariff. These two stipulations reduce the investment risk
and contribute greatly to the development of the renewable
energy generation in Germany.
In addition, there are related promotion legislations in Germany for biofuels, nature gas and biomass heating. According to
the requirement of the EU Renewable Energy Directive, from July
2006, all biofuels have to exempt from the tax in the Fuel Tax Law.
And the tax rates are gradually increased during the period of
20062012 until reach the goals of the mixture ratio for biodiesel
in gasoline. The Biofuel Quota Act, in effect from January 2007,
mandates a share of at least 4.4% biodiesel in total diesel,
bioethanol quota to increase to 3.6% by 2010. The objective is to
achieve the share of 8% biofuels in overall fuel consumptions by
2015 [13]. The Renewable Energy Heating Bill came into force from
January 2009, which mandates a share of 30% renewable energy in
electricity generation, and 14% in heating generation by 2020. The
Bill also denes the bioenergy efciency technologies.

2.3.3. By nancing project to facilitate the development of bioenergy

technology R&D and its commercialization
German Government released the Biorenery Roadmap in July
2012, aimed at strengthening industrial biotechnology R&D and
innovation, and promoting the transformation of the raw materials in traditional chemical industries from petroleum to renewable
biomass. The Roadmap is an important part of the German Federal
Government Action Plans for the Material and Energetic Utilization of Renewable Raw Materials. In November 2010, German
Government launched the National Research Strategy BioEconomy
2003, which plans to provide a funding of over 6 billion by the
year 2016 for the development of sustainable bioeconomy including bioenergy development, the innovative industrial biotechnology projects, and the strategic industrial collaborations [30]. For
example, Allianz Aero Carbon Footprint, initiated by TEW Group, a
total of 21 companies and research institutions participating in it,
mainly focuses on the accomplishment of the comprehensive
utilization of high-carbon waste resources in thermal power plants
by means of industrial microbial technology, meanwhile will
provide a funding of 46 million for R&D in the next 9 years. From

Table 7
Development objectives of biomass in Germany of 2020.
(Source: BMU/BMELV (2009).
2007

Share
Share
Share
Share

of
of
of
of

RE
RE
RE
RE

in
in
in
in

primary energy consumption

end-energy
primary gross electricity consumption
heat supply

2020

All renewable (%)

Of which bioenergy (%)

All renewables (%)

Of which bioenergy (%)

6.7
8.6
14.2
6.6

4.9
6.2
3.9
6.1

16
18
Minimal 30
14

11
10.9
8
9.7

Table 8
Key objectives of the Federal Government's Energy Concept of 2010 (unit: %).

The
The
The
The

reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (compared to 1990)

share of renewable energy in gross nal energy consumption
share of renewable energy in electricity production
decrease of primary energies (compared to 2008)

2010

2020

2030

2050

 27
10
16
6

 40
18
35
 20

 55
30
50

 88
60
80
 50

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Y. Su et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 50 (2015) 9911003

2000, the Market Incentive Programme (MAP) has started to fund

biomass plants to stimulate the German biomass development.
The German Government provided a total 500 million funds for
the promotion of renewable energy development through MAP
during 20112012 scal years.
2.4. Brazilian bioenergy policy
Brazil, the world's earliest bioethanol development country, is
the leadership of bioethanol production and sales. And now there
are more than 80% vehicles in Brazil using bioethanol blended
fuels [31].
As early as the 1970s, the time of oil crisis, Brazil launched the
National Ethanol Fuel Program (the Programa Nacional do Alcool),
and introduced a series of measures to improve ethanol production in order to reduce dependence on imported oil and at the
same time to cope with the situation of sharply decrease of the
national sugar price. The Programa Nacional do Alcool has
experienced three stages: (1) from the early 1970s to early
1990s, in response to the oil crisis, the government began to
concern the ethanol production and encourage to developing
aqueous ethanol; (2) from the early 1990s to early 2000s, oil price
was tending to be stable. Brazil started to develop anhydrous
ethanol, with initial volume ratio of 20% ethanol mixed with
gasoline, 22% in 1993 and 25% in 2002; (3) from 2000 to today,
it was the period from the invention of exible fuel vehicles to the
establishment of Brazil ethanol market. The emergence of ethanolgasoline dual-fuel cars industry brought great opportunities
for the recovery and growth of the Brazilian ethanol market. Now
approximately 9798% ethanol is used in transport sector in Brazil.
Due to the successful implementation of the Programa Nacional do
Alcool, the industry of sugarcane and ethanol in Brazil account for
3.5% of the national GDP, and provide 3.6 million jobs. There is 50%
of the national sugarcane production used to produce ethanol
fuels in Brazil [32].
To maintain the leading position in the world, Brazil is
continuously encouraging the production of bio-ethanol. In April
2013, the Brazilian government announced a series of incentive
policies for ethanol producing. For example, the PIS and CONFIN
taxes, a total of which was 0.12 reais/L, were exempted in ethanol
industry. The relevant tax exemption in 2013 was 0.97 billion reais.
The government also provided low-interest loans for sugarcane
farmers for cultivated land expansion and species improvement.
Biodiesel is the alternative biofuels which the Brazilian Government makes a lot effort to promote. The Brazilian Government
once released a Biodiesel Programme in 1980s which unfortunately deadlocked over the high production cost. The Government
resumed the Biodiesel Programme (PNPB) at the end of 2004 for
introduction of biodiesel into the National Energy Framework,
promoting energy diversication and energy security, reducing
dependence on the imported oil, and narrowing down the difference of regional economy, as well as creating jobs. The government implemented the National Biodiesel Production and
Application Plan in January 2005, which required from January
2008 the traditional diesel to be mixed with 2% biodiesel, and
raising to 5% by January 2013 [20].
Brazil promotes the biofuels development by means of legislation
and nancial policy to ensure the implementation of the plan. The
Brazilian Government provides tax alliance for the biofuels manufacturers and sellers under the Social Fuel License (Selo Combustivel
Social) certication system. The No. 11,116 Federal Act enacted in May
2005 provides PIS/PASEP and CONFINS tax relief for the biodiesel
produced from the castor oil coming from the poorer northern and
northeastern areas as well as semi-arid areas in Brazil.
When the biodiesel market was not mature enough, the Brazilian
government had taken measures to support it, thereby expanding the

share of new energy in the market. The Brazil Government adopted a

form of procurement reverse auction to reduce procurement cost and
management fee, and promote the improvement of the overall level
of the suppliers [33]. In 2006, the Petrobras signed a contract with
four alternative fuel companies about biodiesel purchase, indicating
that the act of mixing biodiesel with conventional diesel has entered a
substantive stage. In terms of nancial support, the Brazilian SocioEconomic Development Bank (BNDES) set up a special incentive fund
for the biodiesel manufacturers to provide up to 90% amount of the
projects funds, and to extend the payment period by 25% for the
purchase of machinery. These measures greatly stimulated the
development of the biodiesel industry in Brazil. In order to ensure
the supply of bioethanol feedstock, Brazil will deposit additional
subsidies of about $340 million for the sugarcane farmers to expand
the sugarcane planting.
Brazil in recent years focuses on the R&D and industrialization of
advanced biofuels, especially aviation biofuels, and makes a lot of
efforts to seek international cooperation. In October 2011, the
Embraer, Sao Paulo Research Foundation and the U.S. Boeing Company signed an Agreement of Aviation Biofuels Development with the
purpose of jointly developing aviation biofuels and setting up
sustainable aviation biofuel industry. Some Brazilian companies
including the Embraer jointly developed the sugarcane-based biofuels
with the U.S. General Electric and the Amyris, and launched the rst
aircraft using sugarcane-based biofuels.
2.5. China's bioenergy policy
China has the largest population of the world, whose total
energy consumption ranks rst in the world since 2010, and has
become the world's largest CO2 emitter. In 2013, China's net oil
imports was 7M b/d which was the world's largest [1].The main
driving forces for the development of biomass in China are: (1) to
reduce dependence on oil imports and guarantee oil security, and
(2) to reduce GHG emissions.
With the rapid development of bioenergy in China, the China's
biofuel production accounted for 2.0% of the world total production in 2011, ranked sixth in the world [34]. The rapid growth of
biofuel production in China beneted from the positive bioenergy
policy and program supported by Chinese Government. The
Renewable Energy Program issued in 2012 by the National Energy
Bureau drew up short-term detailed objectives and planning for
bioenergy by the year 2015, which are shown in Table 9.
China has formulated a series of policies and measures to
promote biomass sustainable development and the realization of
the target, and provided tax subsidies to encourage the development and utilization of biomass. In point of legislation, the rst
renewable energy-related law in China is the Renewable Energy
Law carried out on 1 January 2006, and its Amendment was
passed in 2009. In addition, the introduction of a number of supporting policies and measures as well as management approach,
including the Renewable Energy Industrial Development Guidance

Table 9
Development objectives of renewable energy of 2015 in China.

Total installed capacity of biomass power

(MW)
Biomass solid fuels (10 thousand tons/
year)
Biogas (billion m3/year)
Non-food bioethanol (10 thousand tons/
year)
Biodiesel (10 thousand tons/year)

Year of
2010

Year of
2015

Year of
2020

550

1300

3000

300

1000

5000

140
180

220
350400

440
1000

50

100

200

Y. Su et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 50 (2015) 9911003

Catalog and the Renewable Energy Generation Regulations, was

helpful to guide and promote the development of biomass energy
industry.
In terms of policy support, Chinese Government proposed
specic subsidy methods for biomass power generation, bioethanol production and utilization of straw. The Ministry of Finance
issued the Interim Measure for the Administration of Subsidies for
Renewable Power Price Appendix in March 2012, grants funding
for the project investment as well as operation and maintenance
of renewable power generation entering in power grid system,
provides subsidies of 4000 yuan per kW per year for the public
independent renewable power system invested by State. The
Interim Measure for the Administration of Subsidies for the
Utilization of Straw as Energy Resource released in 2008 provides
funding for bioenergy plants using straw as raw material.
China's 973 Program, 863 Program and S&T Support Program gave
strong support for R&D of biomass energy during the Eleventh FiveYear period, such as the projects of Scientic Basis for the Microalgae
Energy Scale-Preparation and Key Scientic Issues Research for the
Efcient Biological Degradation and Transformation of Lignocellulose
Resources funded by 973 Program, the major projects of Agricultural
and Forestry Biomass Project, New Efcient Large-Scale Biogas
Project, as well as the projects of Key Technology Research and
Demonstration of the industrialization for Ethanol Fuel from Sweet
Potato in the Southwest Region and Key Technology Research of the
Industrialization for Biomass Liquid Fuel funded by S&T Support
Program, and many projects funded by 863 Program. These support
policies and R&D funding have greatly promoted the progress of
science and technology of biomass energy industry in China.
In general, the legislation, policy, programs and supporting
measures related to bioenergy in China mainly focus on the
cultivation of energy plants, establishment of biomass feedstock
base and promotion of the use of mature technology for biofuels
production in order to promote biological liquid fuels to be
alternative to petroleum fuels and advocate the use of non-food
materials such as straw to produce energy.

3. Industrialization of biofuels
Policy supports are the main driving force for the sustainable and
healthy development of biofuels industry at the beginning. Eight of
the top 10 biofuels companies in American were invested by the
government [35]. Among them, Solazyme's rst wholly-owned
renewable oil production facility was partially funded by a U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) grant to demonstrate commercialscale production of algal-based fuels. Today, they have pioneered an
industrial platform that harnesses the prolic oil-producing ability of
microalgae [36].

999

production has been in a state of growth because of the high goals

of biofuels under the U.S. Renewable Energy Standard Act, while
the growth rate has been becoming slow down since 2010. Brazil is
the world's second largest producer and the largest exporter of
fuel ethanol which is produced from sugarcane, 80% ethanol
production for domestic consumption and 20% for exports [31].
The economic crisis of 2008 led capital problems for many
sugarcane enterprises, furthermore, the sugarcane production
declined dramatically in 2011 caused by drought and other
climatic factors. The consequence was that the sugar price got to
rise resulting in the shortage of the supply of sugarcane material,
which led to ethanol production decline in Brazil in 2011. The fuel
ethanol production in Brazil continued to show a downward trend
in 2013. The ethanol production output of Cosan S. A, the Brazilian
largest ethanol producer from sugarcane, was 11 million tons
according to its rst quarter report of scal year of 2013, 40% less
than the same period last year. The ethanol production of the
world, the US and Brazil from 2007 to 2012 is shown in Fig. 2.
One of the important factors that affect the fuel ethanol
production and cost is raw materials [31], which were mainly
soybeans and corns for the rst generation fuel ethanol, while
cellulose and algae will be important raw materials in the future
due to the issues of food security and environment protection.
The cellulosic ethanol production started very early, it has reach
the commercial scale production. In October 2013, Beta Renewables
plant opeaned in Italy, it is the rst plant in the world to be designed
and built to produce ethanol from cellulosic feedstocks at commercial
scale. The rst cellulosic bioethanol plant opening presents a new era
for advanced biofuels beginned. A couple of cellulosic ethanol
demonstration plants have been successfully constructed, such as
Canada Iogen Company's demonstration plant in Ottawa, which is the
world's rst cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant with the yield of
2 million liters per year; American Abengoa Bioenergy Company's fuel
ethanol pilot plant with annual production capacity of 5 million liters.
The cost of cellulosic ethanol keeps at high level due to the
insufciency of raw materials and unresolved key technology problems. Now some cellulosic ethanol plants focus on the development
of high value-added byproducts to balance the cost, and even switch
to other biofuels rather than cellulosic ethanol. The U.S. Gevo
Company had received funding of billions of dollars from the
government to study the cellulosic ethanol derived from grasses
and wood chips, but the company announced in early 2012 to
temporarily abandon the production of cellulosic ethanol, and switch
to cellulosic isobutanol and renewable painting fuels.
According to incomplete statistics, there are only 7 plants
producing cellulosic ethanol among more than 200 ethanol
production plants in the United States, as shown in Table 10.

3.1. Bioethanol
Bioethanol Production 2007-2012
25
20

Billons Gallons

With the oil price rising, bioethanol industry has recovered

with the output increased by 17% in 2010 accounting for 2.7% of
the world's transportation fuels. Even some once bankrupt companies began to resume production in 2010. The United States is
the world's largest producer of biofuels, followed by Brazil and
European Union.
The world's bioethanol output was 22.5 billion gallons in 2012,
similar to 2011, slightly declined than 2010 due to the decline in
bioethanol production in Brazil and the saturation of U.S. market.
Since 2006, the fuel ethanol output in the United States has
exceeded the amount in Brazil, becoming the world's largest
producer of ethanol fuels mainly using corn as raw material [32].
Although the world food crisis and the nancial crisis had a
negative impact on ethanol development, the U.S. fuel ethanol

Wrold

15

US
Brazil

10
5
0

2007

2008

2009

Fig. 2. Ethanol production, 20072012.

Source: F.O. Lichts.

2010

2011

2012

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Y. Su et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 50 (2015) 9911003

Table 10
Cellulosic ethanol plants in the United States.
Source: Ethanol Producer Magazine.
Plants name

State

Feedstock

BP Biofuels Demonstration Plant

INEOS Bio
Fiberight of Blairstown LLC
Western Biomass Energy LLC
DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC
Mascoma Corp.
Freedom Pines Biorenery

US
US
US
US
US
US
US

Cellulosic:
Cellulosic:
Cellulosic:
Cellulosic:
Cellulosic:
Cellulosic:
Cellulosic:

Biodiesel Production 2001-2012

6

Billion Gallon

5
4
world

EU
US

2
1
0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Fig. 3. Biodiesel production, 20012012.

Source: F.O. Lichts.

3.2. Biodiesel
Biodiesel technologies have been industrialized. The commercial biodiesel production bases have been established in the United
States, Europe and some countries and regions in Asia, and
biodiesel is widely used as an alternative fuel. Biodiesel is used
mostly in Europe. The biodiesel production in EU accounted for
more than 90% of the world's biodiesel production before 2005.
Later the share began to decline with the production of biodiesel
in the United States and Asia. The biodiesel production in EU,
sharing 5% of the rened oil market, accounted for 39% of the
world's total biodiesel production in 2011, still being the largest
producer and consumer in the world. Germany is the world's
largest biodiesel producer with the output of 2.8 million tons in
2011, accounting for about 35% of the EU biodiesel production. The
United States is the second largest biodiesel producer with the
output of 1100 million gallons in 2012. The ethanol production of
the world, the EU and the US from 2007 to 2012 is shown in Fig. 3.
The positive energy policies and nancial supports are the
essential driving force for the rapid development of the biodiesel
market. Many countries including most Member States in EU, the
United States, China and so on provide tax reliefs for biodiesel [4,37].
The implementation of biodiesel sector standards and specication
improves the industrial conditions for biodiesel, and promotes the
expansion and healthy development of biodiesel industry.
The rst generation biodiesel was derived from food crops such
as rapeseed, soybean and sunower, in EU mainly from oil plants
such as rapeseed oil, palm oil and sunower oil [38], while in
America and Brazil mainly from soybean oil [39]. In order to
promote the production of biodiesel, the EU member states devote
to provision subsidies and tax incentives. As countries are becoming concerned about the sustainable development of biofuels, land
use change and environmental impact, non-food energy plants
such as jatropha and oil wastes begin to be studied as raw
materials for biodiesel. The GTE Program funded by the Rockefeller
Foundation and the German Government in 1995 began to
develop jatropha oil as fuel feedstock in Brazil, Nepal and

Capacity (MMgy)
energy grasses
vegetative waste materials
MSW
sugarcane bagasse
switchgrass, corn stover
wood biomass
woody biomass

1.4
8
5.5
0.5
0.25
0.2
10

Zimbabwe. A number of enterprises in Europe established plantations for biodiesel feedstock with jatropha, palm trees and so on in
developing countries including India, Philippines, etc. [40]. The U.
S. GM company and the U.S. Department of Energy jointly
established a jatropha plantation with a total area of 84 ha on
March 2010 in India to systematically study of derivation biodiesel
from jatropha. But the sustainability of the non-food biodiesel
feedstock becomes questionable because some countries felled
rainforest to cultivate energy plants, leading to land use change
and environmental degradation. Since 2008, the Boeing Company
has cooperated with Yale University to research on aviation fuel
derived from jatropha which is considered to bring substantial
environmental benets and social economic benets if planted
properly, and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions reaches
60% compared to gasoline [41].
Overcapacity is a serious challenge that the biodiesel industry
is facing. In 2004, the global biodiesel production capacity was
only 3 million tons, annual output around 2.5 million tons, and
80% in the regions of EU. The main vegetable oil producers
including EU, the United States, Brazil and Malaysia put more
efforts in recent years on the supporting for biodiesel plants,
which led to the rapid expansion of the biodiesel production
capacity. The EU biodiesel production capacity in 2011 was of 22.1
million tons, while the actual production was only 9.07 million
tons with 50% less operating rates, which resulted in closures of
many small biodiesel plants. The Swiss Biopetrol Industries AG of
Glencore Group closed the biodiesel plants with the annual output
of 150 thousand tons in Germany in 2011 due to continued
overcapacity and low protability.
3.3. Aviation biofuels
It is estimated that the global aviation industry accounts for
about 2% of global total carbon emissions. Due to the rising fuel
price and the pressure of greenhouse gas emission reduction, and
furthermore the implementation of the EU's aviation carbon tax
policy, the aviation industry has to put a lot efforts on biofuels to
be as alternative of fossil energy.
The world's major airlines and traditional bioenergy plants are
involved in the R&D of aviation biofuels. Nearly 20 airlines
including Virgin Atlantic, Air New Zealand and so on made the
test ight with biofuels (Table 11). The Boeing invests in the
development of aviation biofuels all over the world, signed in 2009
a Memorandum of Understanding on Technical Cooperation of
Aviation Fuels from Algae with the Chinese Academy of Science,
initiated the UAE's rst sustainable bioenergy research projects in
cooperation with Masdar Institute of S&T and UOP.
The biofuels producers whose main products are bioethanol
and biodiesel, such as Amyris, ClearFuels, Sapphire Energy, Solazyme and Solena Fuels, have invested in the development of R&D
and production of aviation biofuels since 2008. The UOP as an
aviation biofuels supplier was involved in most of the test ights.
The company has provided 800 thousand gallons biofuels being up

Y. Su et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 50 (2015) 9911003

1001

Table 11
Recent aviation biofuels test ight projects.
Time

Airlines

Aircrafts

Cooperators/suppliers

Feedstock

2008-2
2008-12
2009-1
2009-1
2009-11
2010-3
2010-4
2010-6
2010-8
2010-11
2011-6
2011-6

Virgin Atlantic
Air New Zealand
Continental Airlines
Japan Airlines
Dutch Airline
The U.S. Air Force
The U.S. Navy
Royal Netherlands Air Force
The U.S. Air Force
TAM Airlines
The U.S. Navy
Gulfstream Aerospace

B747-400
B747-400
B747-800
B747-300
B747-400
A10CThunderbolt II
F/A-18
AH-64D
C17 Globemaster III
A320
MH-60S
G450

Boeing, Imperium
UOP, Terasol, Boeing
UOP, Terasol, Boeing, Sapphire Energy Company
Nikki University, UOP, Boeing
GE, UOP, Honeywell
UOP, Sustainable Oils

20% cocoa oil and palm oil

50% jatropha fuel
47.5% jatropha fuel, 2.5% algae fuel
42% camelina fuel, 7.5% jatropha fuel, 0.5% algae fuel
50% camelina fuel
50% camelina fuel
Camelina fuel
Algae fuel, waste oil fuel
25% tallow fuel
50% jatropha fuel
50% algae fuel
50% camelina fuel

UOP, Boeing
UOP, Boeing
UOP
Solazyme
UOP

Table 12
Introduction of aviation biofuels manufacturers.
Company

Raw materials

Products

Solazyme

Algae

Biodiesel, aviation fuels

Solena Fuels

Waste

Biofuels can be directly

used

Amyris

Technical processing

Fischer-Tropsch synthesis
Company patent: plasma
reactor technology to produce
biofuel gas
Microbial fermentation

Sapphire
Energy

Algae

Biodiesel, aviation fuels,

bio-based chemicals
Microalgae crude oil

ClearFuels

Agricultural and
forestry residues,
energy crops
Jatropha

Renewable aviation fuels, Thermochemical conversion

biodiesel, cellulosic
ethanol
Biodiesel, aviation fuels
Jatropha cultivation
Biofuels can be directly
used

Biomass gasication

UOP

Agricultural and
forestry residues,
energy crops
Microalgae, camelina

Hydrodeoxygenation process

Gevo Inc.

Cellulosic biomass

Biofuels can be directly

used
Aviation butanol fuel

SG Biofuel
Rentech

Microalgae green crude oil

technology

to the international standards for the U.S. military and commercial

aircrafts, in cooperation with many companies on aviation fuel
industry chain including the U.S. Government, Boeing, aircraft
equipment manufacturers, airlines around the world and raw
material suppliers, etc. The induction of several producers is
presented in Table 12.
The U.S. military is the main promoter and purchaser of aviation
biofuels. The U.S. Department of Defense signed a purchase contract
of 600 thousand gallons of aviation biodiesel between 2009 and 2010.
The U.S. Air Force and Navy have a schedule that all aircrafts (ships)
will use blend fuels with 50:50 biofuel/gasoline by the year 2020 [42].
The U.S. Navy successfully made test ight in April 2010 with the
main ghter F/A-18 using the biofuel derived from Camelina sativa.
Another successful test ight happened in June 2011 with the MH605 Seahawk helicopter using 50:50 blend fuel of algae biofuel
produced by Solazyme Company and petroleum-based jet fuel. In
April 2013, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Secretary of
Transportation Ray LaHood signed a ve-year agreement with
members of the aviation industry to continue to develop aviation
biofuels. With that agreement, the Federal Government and its
partners hope to support the annual production of 1 billion gallons
of drop-in aviation biofuels by 2018.
The technological issues of the utilization of aviation biofuels have
basically resolved based on the R&D of aviation biofuels by biofuel

Industry development
Constructed the rst integrated algae fuel renery in
Pennsylvania in Dec. 2009
Constructed commercial aviation fuel plant in Feb. 2010 in
cooperation with British Airline

Was publicly traded at the end of 2010

Constructed a 300-acre integrated microalgae fuel renery in Las
Cruces, southern of New Mexico, to produce diesel and aviation
fuels

Cultivated new jatropha, Jmax100, and established Jmax

breeding platform
The biofuel has been tested in the U.S. Air Force T-63 engine and
commercial routes.
Involved in the biofuel test ight in the United States, China,
Japan, New Zealand and other countries

companies and research institutes, as well as the improvement of

aircraft engine systems and airport refueling infrastructure by the
aircraft manufacturers. Meanwhile, what is the most important for
aviation industry is adequate, stable and affordable supply of biofuels.
3.4. Algae biofuels
Algae, usually referred as microalgae, cyanobacteria and large
algae [43], has a number of advantages used as biofuel feedstock,
including use of barren and marginal land, as well as water resources
such as sea water, salt water and waste water; the per unit area yield
is high compared to other energy crops. Furthermore, algae contain
high fat content that can be easily converted into biodiesel; algae
absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide in the growth process, and
recycle the nutrient elements in sewage. Based on above advantages,
algae is considered to be the most potential alternative energy
resources [37,44]. A study report in the United States concluded that
algae energy can meet 17% of the U.S. transportation fuel demand
with the development of its technology [45].
Microalgae energy research began in the 1950s. The U.S.
Department of Energy in 1978 started the Aquatic Species Program
(ASP), as a part of Biomass Program, designed to cultivate algae to
produce fuel in response to the oil crisis coming at any time. The
ASP project fund of about $25 million is the most comprehensive

1002

Y. Su et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 50 (2015) 9911003

and systematic study of microalgae cultivation so far, nevertheless,

the U.S. Department of Energy suspended the plan in 1996,
because oil was at a low price for a long time, and microalgae
energy could not compete against petroleum fuel at that time [46].
After 2005 oil price remains at high level, consequently microalgae
fuel gains attention again. GreenFuel Technologies Corporation
rst started in 2005 the industrial demonstration of the cultivation
of microalgae through power plant ue gas. Other microalgae
professional companies have developed schemes of microalgae
energy demonstration and commercial production. The Governments, large-scale enterprises and venture capital rms invested
heavily in support for microalgae energy development.
The United States resumed the R&D program of microalgae energy
in 2007, and mainly focused on the demonstration projects and pilot
commercialization, the investment in algae energy has passed 40
million in 2013. The UK Carbon Trust launched the public funding
project for microalgae biofuel in 2008. The funding was of d2030
million, aimed at the reduction of the cost of microalgae biofuel by
means of technology research and development. The EU launched a
four and half-year development project of algae energy in 2011.
The biggest problem that affects the industrialization of microalgae bioenergy is cost, leading to the consequence that microalgae energy cannot economically compete against petroleum
fuels so far. According to the assessment of IEA in 2011, the
production cost of algae biodiesel was of approximately $300/
barrel [47], much higher than that of petroleum fuels. The
microalgae biodiesel cannot compete with petroleum fuels until
its production cost reduces to about $100/barrel [43]. The cost of
microalgae energy production can be reduced by means of carbon
dioxide emission reduction, waste processing, and production of
high-value by-products.

4. Conclusion
The biofuel industry is in developing stage. In the last 10 years,
biofuels development has been driven by the government policies,
and the government has provided sustained and cost-sharing amount
decreasing subsidies for the whole process from feedstock, experimentation to industrialization of bioenergy industry in order to
reduce investment risk, especially in the last 3 years, the government
focused on the plant and commercialization projects.
There are political debates over the impact of biofuels on climate
change, and the GHG emission became a driven force of biofuels
development. The US set a strict limit on the GHG emission during
the biofuels producing process, and focused on the development of
the advanced biofuels. The RFS set signicant production targets of
cellulosic biofuels. The EU has begun to focus on the impact of
bioenergy development on the environment from 1990s, and through
the Directive legislated the goal of GHG emission.
Many biofuel companies have successfully produced commercialscale of bioethanol and biodiesel, but the projects were affected by
raw materials and the change of policy. It would be a challenge for the
policy makers to continue trends of biofuels production while
complying with sustainable production requirements.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the help of the organization and individuals whose literature has been cited in this article.
Research of this article was supported by The National Social Science
Fund of China (14BJY064).

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