An Assessment of Thailand’s Biofuel Development

S. Kumar, P. Abdul Salam, Pujan Shrestha and Emmanuel Kofi Ackom
Additional contact information
S. Kumar: School of Environment, Resources and Development (GNESD Member Centre), Asian Institute of Technology, P. O .Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
P. Abdul Salam: School of Environment, Resources and Development (GNESD Member Centre), Asian Institute of Technology, P. O .Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
Pujan Shrestha: School of Environment, Resources and Development (GNESD Member Centre), Asian Institute of Technology, P. O .Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
Emmanuel Kofi Ackom: Global Network on Energy for Sustainable Development (GNESD), UNEP Risø Centre, Denmark Technical University, DTU Management Engineering, Frederiksborgvej 399, Building 142, Roskilde 4000, Denmark

Sustainability, 2013, vol. 5, issue 4, 1-21

Abstract: The paper provides an assessment of first generation biofuel (ethanol and biodiesel) development in Thailand in terms of feedstock used, production trends, planned targets and policies and discusses the biofuel sustainability issues—environmental, socio-economic and food security aspects. The policies, measures and incentives for the development of biofuel include targets, blending mandates and favorable tax schemes to encourage production and consumption of biofuels. Biofuel development improves energy security, rural income and reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but issues related to land and water use and food security are important considerations to be addressed for its large scale application. Second generation biofuels derived from agricultural residues perform favorably on environmental and social sustainability issues in comparison to first generation biofuel sources. The authors estimate that sustainably-derived agricultural crop residues alone could amount to 10.4 × 10 6 bone dry tonnes per year. This has the technical potential of producing 1.14–3.12 billion liters per year of ethanol to possibly displace between 25%–69% of Thailand’s 2011 gasoline consumption as transportation fuel. Alternatively, the same amount of residue could provide 0.8–2.1 billion liters per year of diesel (biomass to Fischer-Tropsch diesel) to potentially offset 6%–15% of national diesel consumption in the transportation sector.

Keywords: biofuel; ethanol; biodiesel; Thailand; policy; sustainability; GHG emissions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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