Text by Chuck Squatriglia.
Malaysia, Thailand, Colombia, Uruguay and Ghana are poised to become the world leaders in biodiesel production, according to a new study.
That's surprising, since the United States is the world's leading producer and exporter of soybeans, a major source for biofuel -- a promising short-term alternative to fossil fuels. The U.S. harvested
3.1 billion bushels of soybeans last year.
But when Matt Johnston and Tracey Holloway of the University of Wisconsin at Madison's Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment studied which countries are best positioned to enter the burgeoning market for biodiesel, they came up with a list of developing countries with a strong agricultural base, stable governments and low debt.
Their work, which ranks nations according to their potential to make large quantities of the fuel at low cost, appears in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
In terms of overall volume, the United States and Brazil top the list.
But the study found that because the other countries refine biodiesel from resources they're currently exporting, including coconut, rapeseed, sunflower and olive oils, as well as animal fats, they . Many of these countries could earn more money -- or offset domestic fuel needs -- by refining it into biodiesel.
"A lot of these countries don't have any petroleum resources and so they're having to import petroleum," Johnston said in a press release from UW-Madison. "At the same time, they're exporting vegetable oil that they could be turning into biodiesel."
The study found that worldwide production of bio-diesel could reach 51
billion liters (13.5 billion gallons). But critics worry that converting crops to fuel could damage food supplies. Growing demand for soybeans and other sources of biodiesel could also accelerate deforestation.
The study, the researchers said, can help identify where such problems may occur and how they might be mitigated.
