Concerned by potential climate change-related damages (including changes to coastlines and the spread of tropical diseases, among others), the US faces the necessity of finding solutions for the 17.7%-reduction of GHG emissions (Lokey, 2007). Because of the fact that the electrical sector accounts for 40% of all GHG emissions, investments in cost-competitive renewable energy sources, such as wind, geothermal and hydroelectricity, have been recommended. Given the ample solar resources that exist in the US, it has a plethora of untapped sources for renewable-energy generation (Flavin et al., 2006). The Biomass Program of the US Department of Energy (launched in 2000) recommended 5% use of biofuels by 2010, 15% by 2017, and 30% by 2050. However, it is predicted that the ethanol market penetration for transportation should attain ~50% of gasoline consumption by 2030 (Szulczyk et al., 2010). Currently, maize and other cereals (such as sorghum) are the primary feedstocks for US ethanol production. At 40 Ml of ethanol per day, maize is still considered a low-efficiency biofuel crop because of its high required input, excessive topsoil erosion (10 times faster than sustainable) and other negative side effects (Donner & Kucharik, 2008; Laurance, 2007; Sanderson, 2006; Scharlemann & Laurance, 2008). By comparison, biodiesel from soybean requires lower inputs. However, neither of these biofuels can displace fossil fuel without impacting food supplies. Even if all US corn and soybean production were dedicated to biofuels, only 12% of the gasoline and 6% of the diesel demand, respectively, would be met (Hill et al., 2006). However, agricultural, municipal, and forest wastes could together sustainably provide 1 Gt of dry matter annually and should complement the other biofuel crops (Vogt et al., 2008). It was proposed that 3.1-21.3 Mha of land should be converted to biomass production (Schmer et al., 2008). Algal biodiesel is also being included in an integrated renewable-energy park (Singh & Gu, 2010; Subhadra, 2010).

Bioethanol from Brazil results in over 90% GHG savings (Hill et al., 2006). In addition to the PROALCOOL program, the Brazilian government created the PRO-OLEO program in 1980 and expected a 30% mixture of vegetable oils or derivatives in diesel and full substitution in the long term. Unfortunately, after the price drop of crude oil on the international market in 1986, this program was abandoned and was only reintroduced in 2002. Because of its great biodiversity and diversified climate and soil conditions, Brazil has a variety of plant-oil feedstocks, including mainly soybean, sunflower, coconut, castor bean, cottonseed, oil palm, physic nut and babassu (Nass et al., 2007). Brazil celebrated the inauguration of the Embrapa Agroenergia research center in 2010 to promote the integration of the oil from these feedstocks into the network of biodiesel sources. The National Program of Production and Use of Biodiesel (PNPB) was launched in 2004 with the objective of establishing the economic viability of biodiesel production together with social and regional development. The current diesel consumption in Brazil is approximately 40 Gl/yr and the potential market for biodiesel currently of 800 Ml and that should achieve 2 Gl by 2013. In addition, B5 has been mandatory since 2010. Auction prices have varied between US$ 0.3 and 0.8/l according to the area of production (Barros et al., 2006). Between 1975 and 1999, US$ 5 bn were invested in bioenergy resulting in the creation of 700,000 new jobs and US$ 43 bn saving in gasoline imports (Moreira & Goldemberg, 1999). The rate of job creation related to biodiesel production has been estimated to be 1.16 jobs/Ml of annual production (Johnston & Holloway, 2007). However, the recent trend of business centralization is expected to reduce this rate (Hall et al., 2009). Petrobras is now processing (with a capacity of 425,000 t) a mixture of plant oil and crude oil under the name of "H-Bio". With a tropical climate in the major part of its extention, the country has a potential 90 Mha that could be used for oleaginous crop production and that extends over Mato Grosso (southwest), Goias, Tocantins, Minas Gerais (center), Bahia Piaui, and Maranhao (northeast).

The EU accounts for 454 million people (i. e., 7% of the world’s population and 50% more people than live in the US) (Solomon & Banerjee, 2006). The EU is dedicated to a long-term conversion to a hydrogen economy. Renewable energy sources and eventually advanced nuclear power, are envisioned as the principal hydrogen sources on the horizon for use in 2020-2050 (Adamson, 2004). However, even for the distant future, the EU foresees hydrogen production from fossil fuels with carbon sequestration still playing a major role (together with renewable energy and nuclear power). Because of their renewability, biodiesel and bioethanol in the EU have been calculated to result in 15-70% GHG savings when compared to fossil fuels. Frondel and Peters (2007) found that the energy and GHG balances of rapeseed biodiesel are clearly positive.

Bioethanol from sugar beets or wheat and biodiesel from rapeseed are currently the most important options available to the EU for reaching its target biofuel production. Because of increased land use for biofuel production, biofuel crops are now competing with food crops (Odling-Smee, 2007) and they are expected to have substantial effects on the economy. The European consumption of fossil diesel fuel is estimated to be approximately 210 Gl and that of biodiesel to be 9.6 Gl (Malga & Freire, 2011). The EU produces over ~2 Mha (i. e., ~1 Gl) of rapeseed (0.5 kl/ha) and sunflower (0.6 kl/ha) (Fischer et al., 2010), which shows that it depends heavily on importation of biofuels to approach the recommended target of B5.75. Given the higher energy potential of synfuel from biomass and the constraints on the availability of arable land, second-generation biofuels should soon enter the race for biofuel production (Fischer et al., 2010; Havlik et al., 2010).

The price for biodiesel that meets the EU quality standard (EN 14214) is approximately € 730/t. By subtracting the biodiesel export value from the EU market price, one obtains the profit obtained by selling biodiesel from abroad on that market. The export value includes production and exportation costs. Production costs are made up of the plant oil or animal fat production plus the biodiesel processing minus the value of by-products (glycerol for example). Exportation costs include scaling, insurance, taxes and administrative costs (see the calculations in Johnston & Holloway, 2007). The price of US$ 0.88/l for biodiesel was 45% higher than the price of fossil diesel fuel during the same period (2006). Although this price is a convenient baseline, the biodiesel price on the EU market can change quickly depending on factors such as current domestic production, fossil diesel-fuel prices, agricultural yields, and legislation. The same rules will apply to emerging markets in China. Based on volume and profitability estimated in this manner, the top five countries that have the best combination of high volumes and low production costs are Malaysia, Indonesia, Argentina, the US, and Brazil. Collectively, these countries account for over 80% of the total biodiesel production. Plant oils currently used in biodiesel production account for only approximately 2% of global vegetable — oil production, with the remainder going primarily to food supplies.

Despite the fact that India has not attained the high level of ethanol production seen in Brazil, it is the largest producer of sugar in the world. Indian ethanol is blended at 5% with gasoline in nine Indian states and an additional 500 Ml would be needed for full directive implementation. The total demand for ethanol is approximately 4.6 Gl (Subramanian et al., 2005). The country burns 3 times more fossil diesel fuel than gasoline (i. e., roughly 44 Mt), mainly for transportation purposes.

Because India imports 70% of its fuel (~111 Mt), any source of renewable energy is welcome. Therefore, India has established a market for 10% biodiesel blends (Kumar & Sharma, 2008). Because India is a net importer of edible oils, it emphasizes non-edible oils from plants such as physic nut, karanja, neem, mahua and simarouba. Physic nut and karanja are the two leaders on the Indian plant list for biodiesel production.

Of its 306 Mha of land, 173 Mha are already under cultivation. The remainder is classified as either eroded farmland or non-arable wasteland. Nearly 40% (80-100 Mha) of the land area is degraded because of improper land use and population pressures over a number of years. These wasted areas are considered candidates for restoration with physic nuts (Kumar & Sharma, 2008). Nearly 80,000 of India’s 600,000 villages currently have no access to fuel or electricity, in part because there is not enough fuel to warrant a complete distribution network. Physic nuts could bring oil directly into the villages and allow them to develop their local economies (Fairless, 2007). This also applies to developing areas of Brazil and Africa.

In addition to the biodiesel initiative, regular motorcycles with 100 cm3 internal combustion engines have been converted to run on hydrogen. The efficiency of these motorcycles has been proven to be greater than 50 km/ charge. This development has had great significance because 70% of privately owned vehicles in India are motorcycles and scooters. Efforts are also underway to adapt light cars and buses to hydrogen, a move that will likely be helped by the growing number of electric and compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles in and around New Delhi (Solomon & Banerjee, 2006).

In China, the area of arable land per capita is lower than the world’s average. As a result, most edible oils are imported and the demand for edible oils in 2010 is projected to be 13.5 Mt. Because of its large population, China desperately needs sustainable energy sources. Because little arable land is available, China is exploring possibilities for the production of second — and third-generation biofuels (Meng et al., 2008). China is a large developing country that has vast degraded lands and that needs large quantities of renewable energy to meet its rapidly growing economy and accompanying demands for sustainable development. The energy output of biomass grown on degraded soil is nearly equal to that of ethanol from conventional corn grown on fertile soil. Biofuel from biomass is far more economic than conventional biofuels such as corn ethanol or soybean biodiesel. Potential energy production from biomass could reach 6,350,971 terajoules per year (TJ/yr) and an increased value of biomass in China’s energy portfolio is considered unavoidable (Zhou et al., 2008).

Taking advantage of seawater availability, biodiesel from microalgae could also be conveniently grown along the 18,000 km Chinese coastline (Song et al., 2008). Marine microalgae production requires unused desert land, seawater, CO2 and sunshine. Given the abundant areas of mudflats and saline lands in China, there is great potential to develop biodiesel production from marine microalgae.

Sales of electric bicycles and scooters in China have grown dramatically in the last 10 years and now total over 1 million per year. The growth of this demand has been facilitated by bans on gasoline-fueled bicycles and scooters in Beijing and Shanghai (among other large cities) because of increasing concerns about pollution (Solomon & Banerjee, 2006). For this reason, China has become one of the largest potential markets for hydrogen fuel cells in the transportation sector.

Frequent droughts in many Asian countries have made it difficult for them to replicate Brazil’s success with sugarcane, which needs an abundant water supply. Thailand and Indonesia are tapping the potential with palm oil.

Because of its need to retain its position as the high-tech superpower for new technologies, Japan has become one of the most important players in the international development of a hydrogen-based economy. Following Japanese estimations, the hydrogen production potential from renewable energy in Japan is 210 GNm3/ yr (Nm3 is the gas volume in m3 at 0 °C and one atmosphere), which is 4 times more than what it will actually need in 2030. However, hydrogen based on renewable sources is only expected to contribute approximately 15% of the hydrogen consumed by 2030. It is estimated that on-board reforming of methanol or gasoline for fuel cell propelling would be the most practical technology in the near term, but the long-term goal is to adopt pure hydrogen (Solomon & Banerjee, 2006).