Sustainability assessment of biofuels as alternative energy resources

Energy shortage, soaring oil prices, and climate change stimulate the research and development of alternative energy resources to sustain economic growth. Biofuels, such as biodiesel and biomass-based alcohol fuels, are examples of such alternatives. However, whether these energy alternatives can achieve commercial success highly depends on how sustainable they are. This paper reports an on-going effort on sustainability assessment for biofuels. The aim is to understand, evaluate and analyze the impacts of feedstock, demand, supply, and production technology on sustainability of biofuels. It focuses on the effects of these influencing factors on the sustainability of biodiesel fuels derived from waste cooking oils in Singapore.