Assessing the greenhouse gas emissions from poultry fat biodiesel

This article attempts to answer the question: What will most likely happen in terms of emitted greenhouse gases if the use of poultry fat for making biodiesel used in transportation is increased? Through a well-to-wheel assessment, several different possible scenarios are assessed, showing that under average conditions, the use of poultry fat biodiesel instead of diesel leads to a slight reduction (6%) in greenhouse gas emissions. The analysis shows that poultry fat is already used for different purposes and using poultry fat for biodiesel will therefore remove the poultry fat from its original use. This implies that even though the use of biodiesel is assumed to displace petrochemical diesel, the 'original user' of the poultry fat will have to find a substitute, whose production leads to a greenhouse gas emissions comparable to what is saved through driving on poultry fat biodiesel rather than petrochemical diesel. Given that it is the production of the substitute for the poultry fat which mainly eliminates the benefit from using poultry fat for biodiesel, it is argued that whenever assessing the greenhouse gas emissions from biodiesel made from by-products (such as rendered animal fats, used cooking oil, etc.) it is very important to include the oil's alternative use in the assessment

LCA applied to perennial cropping systems: a review focused on the farm stage

International audienc

Review of Existing Sustainability Assessment Methods for Malaysian Palm Oil Production

Malaysia is the second largest palm oil producer in the world. Palm oil production contributes to 6.4% of its gross national income and is important to the socio-economic growth of the country. Palm oil is cheap, high-yield and versatile in various applications. However, the Malaysian palm oil industries are facing enormous challenges due to environmental criticism from pressure groups, green consumerism and increasingly stringent sustainability criterion of importing countries. As a result, various assessment methods have been applied to assess the sustainability performance of palm oil production in Malaysia. This paper reviews how the stakeholders define sustainable palm oil, the effectiveness of existing sustainability assessment through tools (e.g. LCA), standards (e.g. ISPO, ISCC) and legislative requirements (RFS2, REDcert) to identify gaps and barriers to achieve environmental, economic and social objectives of sustainable palm oil production. The gaps and barriers identified would be the basis for developing a holistic framework to attain sustainable palm oil production in Malaysia

Evaluating sustainability of process, supply chain, and enterprise: a bio-based industry case study

by Iskandar Halim, Arief Adhitya and Rajagopalan Srinivasa