Introduction:

According to the European Council, Alternative Fuels refer to fuels or power sources that, at least partially, replace fossil oil sources in transportation energy supply and have the potential to contribute to its decarbonization and improve the environmental performance of the transportation sector. They are categorized into biodiesel, electricity, ethanol, hydrogen, natural gas, propane, and renewable diesel. These alternative fuels are derived majorly from renewable resources that impart a larger part in economic growth, regulating biomass waste management, focused on achieving a cleaner environment, reducing the emission of gaseous pollutants, and eventually leading to a sustainable environment.

Switching to alternative fuels:

Fossil fuel reserves are constantly diminishing as the world's energy needs grow. The world's reliance on non-renewable energy sources, including coal, gas, and oil, is caused by rising energy consumption. Global temperatures rise as a result of rising greenhouse gas levels brought on by the burning of fossil fuels. All these are the consequence that occurred due to the utilization of fossil fuels and the need of the hour on converting to the utilization of alternative fuels which has added advantage of protecting the environment by reducing the harmful emission.

The government of various countries coming forward to allocate the budget, policies, and regulations for alternative fuels. They adopt various ways to reduce the use of petroleum products as vehicle fuel that includes imposing various taxes on domestic and commercial-based petroleum vehicles. The fund, sponsoring, and partnerships are rising in the production, distribution, and supply of these fuels. This encouraged high-potential industries based on fossil fuel and petroleum products development globally that has opened new ventures in renewable fuels, promoting their customer to utilize it and partnering with the automotive industry to do research on the efficiency of this renewable fuel in the existing engine or focus on modifying the engine with respect to alternative fuel usage. All these initiatives paved the way for to utilize the alternative fuels for power generation and vehicle fuels.

Global Market Trend:

The Alternative Fuels Market has grown with a potential of $ 405.19 billion in 2022. The market is expected to grow from $ 482.99 billion in 2023 to $ 1651.48 billion in 2030 with CARG 19.2% in the forecast period of 2023-2030.

North America dominates the market. The United States is the largest user of alternative fuels since it made substantial capital investments in the alternative fuels sector to develop new technologies and make alternative fuels a preferred source of energy. Furthermore, financial assistance from the government in the form of tax refunds and discounts is projected to boost the expansion of the region's alternative fuels sector. High demand for energy may be seen in the Asia-Pacific region due to fast-growing populations in nations such as India, China, and Japan, among others. The majority of energy consumption occurs in these nations. It is projected that this would lead to a rise in the demand for alternative fuels in the area.

Major players in the Alternative Fuels Market are ADM, Ameresco, Inc, EnviTec Biogas AG, Enviva, Drax Group, STARBAG, Pinnacle Renewable Energy Inc, Enerkem, Green Plains Inc., POET, Neste, Diamond Green Diesel LLC (DGD), Renewable Energy Group, Flint Hills Resources, The Andersons, Inc., Raizen S.A., Copersucar S.A., Abengoa, S. A. among others.

Developments:

• A policy to meet the net zero by 2050 challenge launched via the Paris agreement that focused on setting the global warming rate to less than 1.5 °C and decreasing the emission by 45% within 2030. This encouraged different countries came forward to take an oath on it and allowed them to access a common platform that developed a roadmap to reach the goal.
• Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) enforced on July 2021 with the objective to promote renewable sources/energy that subsidize the usage of biologically derived fuels such as biofuels, biodiesel, e-fuels, and hydrogen.
• Renewable fuel expands its power to venture into the aviation industry to reduce its carbon footprint on the development of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Worldwide, airline and aviation industries invested in the research & development and the production of SAF. For instance, United Airlines, Tallgrass, and Green Plains Inc. get together to establish a venture with blue blade energy to deploy and then marketize a unique Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) technology that utilizes ethanol as its feedstock.

Conclusion:

It is evident by the climatic change has made to take responsible action by all the governments of the countries in utilizing the alternative fuel source immediately as a step toward decreasing the emission of greenhouse gas and CO₂. The energy demand rises every year due to an increase in the population. Further, the initiative and policies were implemented to utilize clean energy fuel that helps in reducing the emission of harmful pollutants.

These opened up a new opportunity for leading companies globally in developing and producing efficient renewable fuel that abides quality defined by standard fuels. The company should focus on producing alternative fuels by utilizing different biomass sources. Through partnership and collaboration with leading automotive industries to develop engine technology that utilizes renewable fuels. Finally, the government should encourage the usage of alternative fuel among the population through awareness programs and tax redemption, and also industry should take initiative to promote its values. All these will surely increase the market for alternative fuels in the given forecast period.