Do the Spanish want biodiesel? A case study in the Catalan transport sector

Abstract

7In this paper, we analyse the opinions, attitudes and willingness of consumers to pay for 8 biodiesel as an alternative to diesel in Barcelona province. Data were gathered from face-to-9 face structured questionnaires from 300 diesel car owners/users that regularly purchase fuel. 10 A variation of the traditional choice experiments (CE) was used by excluding the price attribute 11 from the design. In a subsequent contingent valuation (CV) exercise, respondents were asked 12 to state their maximum willingness to pay (WTP) for their preferred choice sets using the 13 "payment card" format. The relative importance of the attributes and levels were calculated by 14 estimating a random parameter logit model. The results demonstrated, contrary to the literature 15 in Spain, that consumers were not willing to pay for biodiesel, especially when its production 16 may negatively affect food prices. The main limitation was that car manufacturers do not 17 recommend its use as it may lead to engine failure. The public authorities are asked to work 18 jointly with the automotive industry to address this drawback. 19 20

Overcoming the barriers for biodiesel use in Spain: An analysis of the role of convenience and price

“…On the other hand, the majority of drivers are not worry about the influence of the biodiesel in the power, consumption and cost of maintenance of the car. This result is in line with Kallas and Gil (2015) who found for Catalonian drivers that biodiesel availability in petrol stations is the most important reason of not using biodiesel. On contrary, results differ from Giraldo et al (2010) who found that the most important reasons preventing the use of biodiesel are the lack of information about the product and about the effect it may have on the car engine.…”

“…On the other hand, only 0.2 percent (one respondent) indicated that he/she always used biodiesel and 12 percent stated that use biodiesel often or sometimes. This actual frequency of use is similar to Kallas and Gil (2015) for drivers in Cataluña (other northeast region in the Iberian Peninsula east of Aragon). Respondents were asked the reasons for not using biodiesel (Table 2) and the main reason of not using it is the lack of availability in the regular petrol station.…”

“…In particular, we study the willingness/intention to use biodiesel by Spanish car drivers and the factors explaining this intention. Few empirical papers have been conducted to analyse the consumer preferences for biodiesel (Giraldo et al, 2010;Kallas and Gil, 2015) and only a limited number of papers address consumer acceptability of biofuels assessing perceptions and attitudes but without going into the study of consumers' behaviour (Chin et al, 2014;Mariasiu, 2013;Van de Velde et al, 2009). Findings from the latter studies indicated that consumers perceived biofuels to be better for the environment, the regional economy and for increasing energy security.…”

Thermodynamic Analysis of Waste Vegetable Oil Conversion to Biodiesel with Solar Energy

“…However, its integration into the world energy market remains predominantly weak, being less than 13% worldwide [6]. Biodiesel continues to be the highest production biofuel in the world, and the European Union is the largest producer, where 70% of biofuel is produced for the transport sector [7]. Developing countries are highly dependent on imported fossil fuels such as diesel and simultaneously face the challenge of reducing their greenhouse gas emissions [8].…”

Dual‐Site Single‐Atom Catalysts with High Performance for Three‐Way Catalysis

“…[4][5][6] Despite great achievements made, the current TWCs still suffer from the relatively high ignition temperature and poor hydrothermal stability that cannot match the increasingly powerful engines, as well as the stricter and stricter emission regulations. [7,8] To this end, the nature of TWCs, involving compositions, sizes, shapes, and interactions between metals and supports, must be elaborately manipulated, and new optimization mechanisms for catalytic-performance promotion are highly desired. [9][10][11] Recently, single-atom catalysts (SACs) have received much attention owing to the maximized metal dispersity and utilization efficiency, which paves a new to cut costs of the current TWCs.…”