Internal combustion engines and biofuels: Examining why this robust combination should not be ignored for future sustainable transportation

Nathália Duarte Souza Alvarenga Santos, Vinícius Rückert Roso, Augusto César Teixeira Malaquias and José Guilherme Coelho Baêta

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2021, vol. 148, issue C

Abstract: The automotive industry is experiencing a revolutionary moment in search of reducing the carbon footprint from its activities. Despite the demand for lower pollutant vehicles, there is no need for a complete disruption of the current industrial production processes. Notably, electric vehicles have been promoted by some parties as the only and best solution for the sustainable future of mobility, to the detriment of the internal combustion engine. This tendentious point of view, although controversial and potentially dangerous, has been gaining strength especially after the pandemic started in 2019, when a considerable reduction in the circulation of the fleet worldwide was observed. Therefore, this work aims to demonstrate the importance of a diversity of solutions for the sustainable future of the transport sector. The risks of a technology ban were examined, as well as the reasons why the development of internal combustion engines, alongside biofuels, is still and will continue to be necessary for cleaner mobility. Moreover, an investigation towards the real responsible for global emissions showed that electricity generation, not automobiles, is the major cause of atmospheric pollution.

Keywords: Internal combustion engines; Biofuels; Sustainable transportation; Future mobility; Pollutant emissions; Hybrid vehicles (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032121005797
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:148:y:2021:i:c:s1364032121005797

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2021.111292

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().