Biofuel production & policy: Contributions to economic & environmental analyses and policy decision

January 16, 2024

PAER-2024-06

Farzad Taheripour, Professor of Agricultural Economics

During the past two decades, biofuel production has surged globally due to market forces and policy interventions. Throughout this period, the faculties, researchers, and graduate students of Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural Economic have made significant contributions in advancing national and international research on the economic and environmental consequences of biofuel production and policy.

Their extensive research, comprising over 100 peer-reviewed papers, book chapters and official reports, spans a wide range of biofuel-related topics. These include, but are not limited to:

  1. Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA): Assessing the economic feasibility and viability of biofuel production.
  2. Supply Change and Life-Cycle Analysis (LCA): Examining the entire life cycle of biofuels, from production to consumption to understanding environmental impacts.
  3. Economic Impacts: Assessing both long-term and short-term economic effects of biofuel production and policy on agricultural and non-agricultural activities at local, national, and global scales.
  4. Land-Use Change Effects: Evaluating land-use change implications of producing biofuels from various feedstocks, including conventional crops like corn and soybeans and dedicated energy crops such as miscanthus and switch grass.

While these research efforts have helped the research community to better understand the economic and environmental impacts of biofuel production and policy, they have also contributed toward policy design and debates in this area.

The biofuel research conducted by Purdue’s Department of Agricultural Economic has been instrumental in shaping biofuel polices, defining low carbon fuel standards, and receiving widespread citation in official reports from various national and international agencies. Notably, the California Air Resources Board has adopted emissions estimates related to Induced Land Use Change (ILUC) from Purdue’s GTAP-BIO model. The Argonne National Laboratory utilizes Purdue’s ILUC estimates to assess the carbon intensity of biofuel pathways in its carbon model (GREET). Several states set their biofuel policies using this model.

Additionally, the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) relies on Purdue’s GTAP-BIO model to evaluate ILUC greenhouse gas (GHG) emission values for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) pathways. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has cited various papers and reports from Purdue in its Third Triennial Report to Congress on Biofuels (RtC3), emphasizing the significant contributions of researchers such as Alla Golub, Roman Keeney, Thomas Hertel, Farzad Taheripour, and late Wallace E. Tyner.

In a model comparison exercise conducted in 2023, the EPA has used five models to evaluate the potential of biofuels in reducing GHG emissions, with the GTAP-BIO model being one of them. The results of this practice will be used to define new goals for the US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

Tags

Publication Appeared Within:

Latest Articles:

The Outlook for the U.S. Economy in 2025

January 31, 2025

Amid much policy uncertainty, output will likely grow about 2.2% in 2025, a bit slower than in 2024. Inflation should fall gradually to 2.4%, the unemployment rate should remain unchanged, and the Fed will cut interest rates more slowly than previously expected.

READ MORE

Interesting Times for U.S. Trade Policy

January 31, 2025

The President-elect’s trade policy is likely to be at least as harmful in his second term in office as it was in his first term. Export-oriented agriculture will bear a disproportionate share of the costs from another trade war.

READ MORE

Farm Policy Outlook

January 31, 2025

In this outlook we examine the agricultural policy implications of a new Trump administration, focusing on the potential passing of a 2025 farm bill and its impact on the sector. We consider how the farm safety net will address new policy agendas such as federal budget priorities and broader economic issues such as trade, immigration, and energy.

READ MORE

Delivered right to your inbox

The Purdue Agricultural Economics Report is a quarterly publication written by faculty and staff from the Department Agricultural Economics at Purdue University.

By joining this mailing list, you will receive an email when a new publication is released. This mailing list is kept solely for the purpose of sharing the report and is not used for any other purposes.