Hector M. Nuñez

Agave for tequila and biofuels: an economic assessment and potential opportunities

This paper explores the economic viability of producing biofuels from Agave in Mexico and the potential for it to complement the production of tequila or mescal. We focus on Agave varieties currently being used by the tequila industry to produce two beverages, tequila and mescal, and explore the potential for biofuel production from these plants. Without competing directly with beverage production, we discuss the economic costs and benefits of converting Agave by‐products to liquid fuel as an additional value‐added product and expanding cultivation of Agave on available land. We find that the feedstock cost for biofuel from the Agave piña alone could be more than US

Bioenergy Development Policy and Practice Must Recognize Potential Hydrologic Impacts: Lessons from the Americas

3 L−1 on average. This is considerably higher than the feedstock costs of corn ethanol and sugarcane ethanol. However, there may be potential to reduce these costs with higher conversion efficiencies or by using sugar present in other parts of the plant. The costs of cellulosic biofuels using the biomass from the entire plant could be lower depending on the conversion efficiency of biomass to fuel and the additional costs of harvesting, collecting and transporting that biomass.

Explaining the reductions in Brazilian sugarcane ethanol production costs: importance of technological change

Large-scale bioenergy production will affect the hydrologic cycle in multiple ways, including changes in canopy interception, evapotranspiration, infiltration, and the quantity and quality of surface runoff and groundwater recharge. As such, the water footprints of bioenergy sources vary significantly by type of feedstock, soil characteristics, cultivation practices, and hydro-climatic regime. Furthermore, water management implications of bioenergy production depend on existing land use, relative water availability, and competing water uses at a watershed scale. This paper reviews previous research on the water resource impacts of bioenergy production—from plot-scale hydrologic and nutrient cycling impacts to watershed and regional scale hydro-economic systems relationships. Primary gaps in knowledge that hinder policy development for integrated management of water–bioenergy systems are highlighted. Four case studies in the Americas are analyzed to illustrate relevant spatial and temporal scales for impact assessment, along with unique aspects of biofuel production compared to other agroforestry systems, such as energy-related conflicts and tradeoffs. Based on the case studies, the potential benefits of integrated resource management are assessed, as is the need for further case-specific research.

Land use and economic effects of alternative biofuel policies in Brazil and the United States

Over the period 1975–2010, unit production costs of sugarcane ethanol in Brazil declined by 67%, while the per‐unit processing costs decreased by more than 70%. This article examines the role of various factors that lead to these cost reductions, including learning‐by‐doing (LBD), economies of scale, rising input prices, market competitiveness, and exogenous technological changes. Using the aggregate industry‐level data, we show that the traditional experience curve approach will lead to biased estimate of the learning effect when economies of scale, rising input prices, market competitiveness, and exogenous technological changes are excluded as explanatory variables in explaining these cost reductions. With the inclusion of these variables and LBD, we find that the reductions in production/processing costs of Brazilian sugarcane ethanol were primarily driven by autonomous technological changes and unrelated to LBD. Economies of scale, market competitiveness, and rising input prices had insignificant impacts on the reductions in production/processing costs of sugarcane ethanol over the sample period.