San José, (EFE).- Biofuels are key pieces for America to move towards a clean energy transition and, at the same time, attract investment due to the great potential of its productive sector, affirmed a group of experts.
“Biofuels are a fundamental piece in the clean energy transition, with relatively lower development times, costs and implementation compared to electromobility or hydrogen propulsion. They constitute an immediately available, economically feasible and environmentally sustainable alternative,” said the general director of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Manuel Otero.
Otero participated last week in Argentina in the Pan American Summit on Liquid Biofuels, which also hosted a conference and a closed meeting of the Pan-American Coalition for Liquid Biofuels (CPBIO).
“It is essential to take advantage of the comparative advantages of the countries of the Americas to continue developing biofuels. The region has a biomass capital with high possibilities of being sustainably industrialized to produce it, but above all, public policies have a fundamental role for its development,” added Otero.
He IICA He highlighted that during the meeting in Argentina, the experts agreed that the American continent has a vocation and great potential to advance in the implementation of modern public policies for the liquid biofuels sector, multiply its production and attract investment.
The summit was organized by the Pan-American Coalition for Liquid Biofuels (CPBIO), for which IICA operates as the technical secretariat and which is made up of the main business and industrial associations of the Americas dedicated to the production and processing of sugar, alcohol, corn, sorghum, soybeans, vegetable oil and grains, among other products of the agricultural sector.
During the meeting, the experiences in the massive use of biodiesel and bioethanol in different countries of America and Europe were highlighted, and at the same time cases of interest were presented in which biofuels are included in a carbon credits trading market.
The experts also analyzed new trends in emerging biofuels such as green diesel or hydrotreated vegetable oils.
The executive director of the Argentine Chamber of Biofuels (CARBIO), Victor Castrohighlighted that “green diesel or hydrotreated vegetable oils could represent 25% of the total biodiesel produced in 2023.”
The event also addressed the issue of the potential of sustainable aviation fuels and the role played by the product sector of the American continent.
“The Americas can become an export platform for sustainable aviation biofuels, taking advantage of the great availability of raw materials that can be industrialized and considering that international civil aviation has committed to being net zero emissions by 2050,” said the international specialist in IICA Biofuels, Agustín Torroba.
