Commercialization of biofuel products: A systematic literature review

The debate on the future of fossil fuels regained momentum in the late 1990s and has subsisted due to their negative environmental impact and the need to develop sustainable energy sources. Owing to the increasing emissions footprint, there is growing pressure to adapt to alternative clean energies in a bid to mitigate the deteriorating climatic conditions. Research on alternative energy sources is top on the agenda. As such, biofuels are now being tested as the next aviation fuel that has since attracted substan-tial attention. Various researchers have overtime sought to redefine the trajectory of research on biofuels starting from the feedstock varieties, evolving from sugar-rich crops to lignocellulosic or non-food-plant, to microalgae and to synthetic biological and metabolic engineering of fungal hosts. Substantial effort is directed at enhancing the biofuel storage capacity as well as deploying technologies that seek to enhance cost efficiency, towards ultimately making biofuels cost effective and commercialize-able. Despite the great potential of biofuels, the Sub-Saharan Africa contribution is still low, notwithstanding the cross cutting deterioration in climatic conditions. Therefore, following a systematic literature review approach, this study sought to ascertain the status of research on the commercialization of biofuels, conceptualiza-tion and the applied antecedents, as well as recommend policy actions and areas for further research. The findings suggest that commercialization is presently conceptualized on a few dimensions; capacity devel-opment towards large scale production and cost efficiency. Also, significant effort has been directed at migrating production from crop based feedstock to non-crop feedstock, as well as improving the storage life span of biofuels.(c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The debate on the future of fossil fuels has persisted due to their negative environmental impact and the need for sustainable energy sources. Alternative clean energies, including biofuels, are being researched to mitigate climate change. Efforts are being made to improve the storage capacity and cost efficiency of biofuels for commercialization. However, the contribution of Sub-Saharan Africa to biofuel research and commercialization is still low despite worsening climate conditions.