ABSTRACT
The use of biofuels in motorized transport began more than a century ago, and was promoted by automobile industry pioneers such as Henry Ford and Rudolph Diesel (Kovarik, 1998; Knothe, 2001). The story of biofuels has been one of boom and bust since then, attracting interest during periods of high oil prices and later for environmental concerns, but fading away in the face of other priorities. Today’s global dependence on petroleum fuels is now understood as being unsustainable in social, economic and environmental terms. Yet substitution efforts have proceeded slowly even in advanced economies that have the resources required. At the same time, biofuels have become more intertwined with other uses of land, water and biomass and are increasingly inseparable from the overall bioeconomy as well as the complex issues associated with rural development and climate change.
