Biofuels for Sustainable Transportation: Advances, Innovations, and Emerging Solutions

The transportation sector faces mounting pressure to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels in the face of energy insecurity, climate change, and the global push toward sustainable development. Fossil fuel combustion remains the dominant energy source for transport worldwide, contributing significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air pollution. Biofuels have emerged as one of the most promising and scalable alternatives, offering pathways to lower emissions while utilizing existing infrastructure and diverse renewable feedstocks.Compared to conventional fossil fuels, sustainable biofuels offer measurable reductions in lifecycle GHG emissions and a lower overall environmental footprint. Rapid advances in metabolic engineering, genetic engineering, catalytic conversion, and integrated biorefinery strategies are accelerating the development and commercialization of a broad range of biofuels, including bioethanol, biodiesel, biobutanol, renewable diesel, and biohydrogen. Despite this progress, key challenges remain in feedstock availability, economic feasibility, process scalability, fuel compatibility, and long-term sustainability.This Research Topic explores recent trends and innovations in biofuels for sustainable transportation. The collection welcomes multidisciplinary contributions spanning biotechnology, chemical engineering, fuel science, environmental science, and policy with the aim of advancing practical and scalable sustainable fuel solutions for the transport sector. Contributions on transport-grade fuels, scalability, engine or fuel performance, lifecycle impacts, techno-economic feasibility, and sustainability validation are of particular interest.Areas within scope include:• Next-generation biofuel development for sustainable transportation, including bioethanol, biodiesel, biobutanol, biohydrogen, renewable diesel, drop-in biofuels, biomass-derived hydrocarbons, and upgraded bio-oils• Microbial, enzymatic, thermochemical, and catalytic production pathways for transport-grade biofuels• Feedstock sourcing and diversification for scalable fuel supply, including agricultural residues, industrial waste, algae, lignocellulosic biomass and other waste-derived resources• Biorefinery design, process integration, and process optimization for commercial fuel production• Fuel compatibility, fuel quality, blending behavior, engine performance, and emissions testing in transport applications• Biofuels for hard-to-decarbonize transportation sectors• Lifecycle assessment of biofuels across the transport supply chain• Techno-economic analysis, scale-up challenges, and barriers to commercialization in the transport sector• Policy frameworks, fuel standards, certification systems, and regulatory pathways supporting net-zero transportation. Topic editors: Amit Kumar, Mukesh Yadav Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81218/biofuels-for-sustainable-transportation-advances-innovations-and-emerging-solutions