Introducing Liquid Biofuels into the GTAP Data Base

Production of liquid biofuels has rapidly increased around the world in recent years. Biofuel production, by its nature, can affect the economy and environment of many countries in different ways. Global Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) analysis is an appropriate approach to study the widespread socio-economic and environmental impacts of bioenergy production. An appropriate benchmark data base including an independent biofuel sector is essential to develop a CGE model for this purpose. This paper represents the first effort aimed at formally introducing liquid biofuels sectors into the version 6 of the GTAP Data Base (Dimaranan, 2007). It builds on the International Energy Agency (IEA) data base, plant-level, biofuel processing models, and the SplitCom program developed by Horridge (2005) to introduce three biofuel sectors into the GTAP Data Base.