Thus, economic obstacles hinder the development of more environment-friendly technologies, as it was proved that second generation biofuels feedstocks have low direct or indirect GHG emission impacts and thus outperform conventional biofuels feedstocks [36] and [37]. On the other hand, it needs to be underlined that

another factor determining economic and environmental sustainability of the second generation biofuels is the location where the feedstock is cultivated. Biofuels feedstocks (even if second generation) grown on arable land can create indirect competition for food and feed production, as the land used for biofuels feedstock plantations Trichostatin A could theoretically be used to produce other crops or as pastureland for cattle grazing. A strongly recommended approach would consider cultivating biofuel feedstock on marginal lands that are unsuited for crop production due to biophysical factors (e.g., water scarcity, low soil fertility, topography), poor or missing crop management practices and/or unfavorable distance from/to the market. Thus, second generation biofuels not competing with food/feed in either direct or indirect way would be most sustainable and could be seen as a prospective

solution in the years to come. It also needs to be mentioned that more experiments and investments as well as economic and environmental analyses are necessary to establish a commercial biofuels production Selleckchem Omipalisib from the above mentioned feedstocks. With the current and anticipated technological developments it could be possible in the future to provide a ranking of the presented feedstocks and an assessment on real potentials of those feedstocks to be economically feasible and competitive with traditional biofuels feedstocks. According to Kenney and

Park Ovard [38], a balance between the biofuels costs and quality is also indispensable to boost the process of scaling up biofuels production. In the mid- and long-term, biofuels production and feedstock selection for commercial biofuels will be determined by several interacting factors and related uncertainties, e.g., on the biofuel/fuel markets, in the field of technological development and on the political level (i.e., governmental subsidies). As explained by Tyner [39], the Roflumilast current government policies in place do not provide the degree of reduction in uncertainty that would be necessary to induce commercial investments in cellulosic biofuels. The paper identified and discussed several feedstocks with the potential to be used in the future for second generation biofuels production. The discussion on prospective solutions for the future is relevant due to the decreasing enthusiasm about conventional biofuels and due to their competing with food and feed production, which might subsequently contribute to high and volatile food prices.