IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v157y2021ics0301421521003669.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysis of biofuel production in Ecuador from the perspective of the water-food-energy nexus

Author

Listed:
  • Terneus Páez, Carlos Francisco
  • Viteri Salazar, Oswaldo

Abstract

Biofuels in Ecuador were born with the purpose of achieving an effective substitution of imports of petroleum derivatives. The objective of this research is to analyze the impact that biofuel production has on water, food, and energy, and its contribution to reducing the growing dependence on fossil fuels in the transportation sector in Ecuador. The analysis focuses on ethanol produced from sugar cane, which is used to produce Ecopaís gasoline. The methodology is composed of three parts. For the first part, Geographic Information Systems were used; for the second, the FAO Penman-Monteith method; and, finally, in the third, the energy consumption was obtained through secondary information. As a result, taking the year 2019 as a reference, ethanol became the ninth product with the largest amount of land suitable for agriculture, and the seventh with the most irrigated areas in a country that suffers from malnutrition. Countries with a tropical climate and highly dependent on imports of petroleum derivatives are tempted to implement policies to promote biofuels. However, due to the risks that this renewable fuel represents on food security, other options for reducing its energy dependence should be exhausted.

Suggested Citation

  • Terneus Páez, Carlos Francisco & Viteri Salazar, Oswaldo, 2021. "Analysis of biofuel production in Ecuador from the perspective of the water-food-energy nexus," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:157:y:2021:i:c:s0301421521003669
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112496
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421521003669
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112496?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Niblick, Briana & Monnell, Jason D. & Zhao, Xi & Landis, Amy E., 2013. "Using geographic information systems to assess potential biofuel crop production on urban marginal lands," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 234-242.
    2. John P A Ioannidis, 2018. "All science should inform policy and regulation," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(5), pages 1-3, May.
    3. Sierra, Jaime Cevallos, 2016. "Estimating road transport fuel consumption in Ecuador," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 359-368.
    4. Gómez García, José Javier & Antonissen, Mariana & Samaniego, Joseluis, 2008. "Consideraciones ambientales en torno a los biocombustibles líquidos," Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo 5679, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    5. García, Carlos A. & Fuentes, Alfredo & Hennecke, Anna & Riegelhaupt, Enrique & Manzini, Fabio & Masera, Omar, 2011. "Life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions and energy balances of sugarcane ethanol production in Mexico," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(6), pages 2088-2097, June.
    6. Saulino, Florencia, 2011. "Implicaciones del desarrollo de los biocombustibles para la gestión y el aprovechamiento del agua," Documentos de Proyectos 3941, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    7. Hall, Charles A.S. & Lambert, Jessica G. & Balogh, Stephen B., 2014. "EROI of different fuels and the implications for society," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 141-152.
    8. Johan N. M. Lagerlöf & Christoph Schottmüller, 2018. "Monopoly Insurance And Endogenous Information," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 59(1), pages 233-255, February.
    9. Yang, Hong & Zhou, Yuan & Liu, Junguo, 2009. "Land and water requirements of biofuel and implications for food supply and the environment in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1876-1885, May.
    10. Renzaho, Andre M.N. & Kamara, Joseph K. & Toole, Michael, 2017. "Biofuel production and its impact on food security in low and middle income countries: Implications for the post-2015 sustainable development goals," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 503-516.
    11. ., 2019. "Conclusion: a fine balance," Chapters, in: Local Accountability and National Coordination in Fiscal Federalism, chapter 9, pages 190-194, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Agapova E.A. & Agapova S.G. & Gushchina L.V. & Finko M.V., 2018. "Information Culture of the Mass," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 2), pages 187-194.
    13. Ravindranath, N.H. & Sita Lakshmi, C. & Manuvie, Ritumbra & Balachandra, P., 2011. "Biofuel production and implications for land use, food production and environment in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 5737-5745, October.
    14. Manochio, C. & Andrade, B.R. & Rodriguez, R.P. & Moraes, B.S., 2017. "Ethanol from biomass: A comparative overview," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 743-755.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lucía Toledo & Gloria Salmoral & Oswaldo Viteri-Salazar, 2023. "Rethinking Agricultural Policy in Ecuador (1960–2020): Analysis Based on the Water–Energy–Food Security Nexus," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-22, August.
    2. Hassan El-Ramady & Gréta Törős & Khandsuren Badgar & Xhensila Llanaj & Peter Hajdú & Mohammed E. El-Mahrouk & Neama Abdalla & József Prokisch, 2022. "A Comparative Photographic Review on Higher Plants and Macro-Fungi: A Soil Restoration for Sustainable Production of Food and Energy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-33, June.
    3. Quetzalcoatl Hernandez-Escobedo & David Muñoz-Rodríguez & Alejandro Vargas-Casillas & José Manuel Juárez Lopez & Pilar Aparicio-Martínez & María Pilar Martínez-Jiménez & Alberto-Jesus Perea-Moreno, 2022. "Renewable Energies in the Agricultural Sector: A Perspective Analysis of the Last Three Years," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-17, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sastre, C.M. & Maletta, E. & González-Arechavala, Y. & Ciria, P. & Santos, A.M. & del Val, A. & Pérez, P. & Carrasco, J., 2014. "Centralised electricity production from winter cereals biomass grown under central-northern Spain conditions: Global warming and energy yield assessments," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 737-748.
    2. Ji, Xi & Long, Xianling, 2016. "A review of the ecological and socioeconomic effects of biofuel and energy policy recommendations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 41-52.
    3. Geraldes Castanheira, Érica & Grisoli, Renata & Freire, Fausto & Pecora, Vanessa & Coelho, Suani Teixeira, 2014. "Environmental sustainability of biodiesel in Brazil," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 680-691.
    4. Fabio G. Santeramo & Monica Delsignore & Enrica Imbert & Mariarosaria Lombardi, 2023. "The Future of the EU Bioenergy Sector: Economic, Environmental, Social, and Legislative Challenges," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 17(1), pages 1-1–52, April.
    5. Kgathi, Donald L. & Mfundisi, K.B. & Mmopelwa, G. & Mosepele, K., 2012. "Potential impacts of biofuel development on food security in Botswana: A contribution to energy policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 70-79.
    6. Ge, Jianping & Lei, Yalin & Tokunaga, Suminori, 2014. "Non-grain fuel ethanol expansion and its effects on food security: A computable general equilibrium analysis for China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 346-356.
    7. Xin Zhang & Yun-Ze Li & Ao-Bing Wang & Li-Jun Gao & Hui-Juan Xu & Xian-Wen Ning, 2020. "The Development Strategies and Technology Roadmap of Bioenergy for a Typical Region: A Case Study in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region in China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-25, February.
    8. Iriarte, Alfredo & Rieradevall, Joan & Gabarrell, Xavier, 2012. "Transition towards a more environmentally sustainable biodiesel in South America: The case of Chile," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 263-273.
    9. Weng, Yuwei & Chang, Shiyan & Cai, Wenjia & Wang, Can, 2019. "Exploring the impacts of biofuel expansion on land use change and food security based on a land explicit CGE model: A case study of China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 514-525.
    10. Jonathan Dumas & Antoine Dubois & Paolo Thiran & Pierre Jacques & Francesco Contino & Bertrand Cornélusse & Gauthier Limpens, 2022. "The Energy Return on Investment of Whole-Energy Systems: Application to Belgium," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 1-34, December.
    11. Christian Moretti & Blanca Corona & Robert Edwards & Martin Junginger & Alberto Moro & Matteo Rocco & Li Shen, 2020. "Reviewing ISO Compliant Multifunctionality Practices in Environmental Life Cycle Modeling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-24, July.
    12. Çağatay, Selim & Taşdoğan, Celal & Özeş, Reyhan, 2017. "Analysing the impact of targeted bio-ethanol blending ratio in Turkey," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 6(2), September.
    13. Tiziano Gomiero, 2015. "Are Biofuels an Effective and Viable Energy Strategy for Industrialized Societies? A Reasoned Overview of Potentials and Limits," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(7), pages 1-31, June.
    14. Florian Fizaine & Victor Court, 2016. "The energy-economic growth relationship: a new insight from the EROI perspective," Working Papers 1601, Chaire Economie du climat.
    15. Baudry, Gino & Delrue, Florian & Legrand, Jack & Pruvost, Jérémy & Vallée, Thomas, 2017. "The challenge of measuring biofuel sustainability: A stakeholder-driven approach applied to the French case," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 933-947.
    16. Lukáš Režný & Vladimír Bureš, 2019. "Energy Transition Scenarios and Their Economic Impacts in the Extended Neoclassical Model of Economic Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-25, July.
    17. Liu, Feng & van den Bergh, Jeroen & Wei, Yihang, 2024. "Testing mechanisms through which China's ETS promotes a low-carbon transition," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    18. Charles Guay-Boutet, 2023. "Estimating the Disaggregated Standard EROI of Canadian Oil Sands Extracted via Open-pit Mining, 1997–2016," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-21, March.
    19. Hong, Sanghyun & Kim, Eunsung & Jeong, Saerok, 2023. "Evaluating the sustainability of the hydrogen economy using multi-criteria decision-making analysis in Korea," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 485-492.
    20. Ross Astoria, 2016. "The legal configuration of hydrocarbon infrastructure," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-51, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:157:y:2021:i:c:s0301421521003669. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.