Reviewing commercial prospects of bioethanol as a renewable source of future energy: An Australian perspective

Currently, the world is in search of bioethanol feedstock that does not compete with the human food supply and prime agricultural land. A native plant of Mexico, Agave tequilana, is one such feedstock. This plant can grow in arid, semiarid, or marginal lands with minimum rainfall and fertilizer and without competing with the current agricultural feedstocks [13, 14]. To date, only first-generation biofuel, especially bioethanol, is used in commercial production. However the second-generation biofuels may produce cost-effective fuels, but this is yet to be demonstrated as this option is still in precommercial or research and development phase [12]. This chapter aims to review the trends of bioethanol production and to explore the key factors affecting the commercial viability of producing first-generation bioethanol, with a particular focus on Australia. This chapter begins with the categorization of biofuels and bioethanol followed by a description of bioethanol feedstocks, the factors affecting commercial viability of bioethanol production in Australia. The chapter concludes with a review of costs and benefits of bioethanol production in Australia.