Recherche pétrolière et gazière

Abstrait

Bioenergy perspectives in the prism of the Bioeconomy frame

George Sakellaris

In the current climate of several global crises, namely, climate
change, finances, food shortage and energy, the impact of the
biomass conversion to fine chemicals and biofuels took the
concept of biorefinery. This process provides unique opportunities
for innovation via product substitution, new feedstock
generation, alternative fuels, utilizing biomass or waste as a new
resource. Large-scale production of biofuels from crops requires
large land areas, so liquid biofuels can only replace fossil fuels
to a very limited extent. The factors influencing the biofuels
development are the oil prices, the crop and fuel markets, the
land availability and of course the governmental policies on all
above. The environmental impacts from the use of Biofuels has
been detected and largely discussed: Reduction of fossil energy
use and greenhouse gas emissions, are the obvious effects on
the first side. Environmental sustainability should be an unnegotiable
factor. Sustainability principles apply also in the Financial
and Social levels. In the longer term, biofuel production
could revitalize the agriculture sector and alleviate poverty by
raising rural incomes. Establishing the Bioeconomy concept, a
great potential becomes achievable: it can maintain and create
economic growth and jobs, reduce fossil fuel dependence and
improve the economic and environmental sustainability of primary
production and processing industries. If the potential of
modern Biotechnology expands, lateral issues like regulatory
frames, harmonized legislation, public perceptions and communications,
ethical or moral issues are becoming more demanding
and requiring. In this whole new context, obtaining
the full benefits of the Bioeconomy will require purposive goaloriented
policy both by governments but also by leading firms,
to put in place the structural conditions, to obtain regional
and international agreements; and to develop mechanisms to
ensure that policy can flexibly adapt to new opportunities.