Life cycle assessment of soybean-based biodiesel in Argentina for export

Background, aim and scope: Regional specificities are a key factor when analyzing the environmental impact of a biofuel pathway through a life cycle assessment (LCA). Due to different energy mixes, transport distances, agricultural practices and land use changes, results can significantly vary from one country to another. The Republic of Argentina is the first exporter of soybean oil and meal and the third largest soybean producer in the world, and therefore, soybean-based biodiesel production is expected to significantly increase in the near future, mostly for exportation. Moreover, Argentinean biodiesel producers will need to evaluate the environmental performances of their product in order to comply with sustainability criteria being developed. However, because of regional specificities, the environmental performances of this biofuel pathway can be expected to be different from those obtained for other countries and feedstocks previously studied. This work aims at analyzing the environmental impact of soybean-based biodiesel production in Argentina for export. The relevant impact categories account for the primary non-renewable energy consumption (CED), the global warming potential (GWP), the eutrophication potential (EP), the acidification potential (AP), the terrestrial ecotoxicity (TE), the aquatic ecotoxicity (AE), the human toxicity (HT) and land use competition (LU). The paper tackles the feedstock and country specificities in biodiesel production by comparing the results of soybean-based biodiesel in Argentina with other reference cases. Emphasis is put on explaining the factors that contribute most to the final results and the regional specificities that lead to different results for each biodiesel pathway. Materials and methods: The Argentinean (AR) biodiesel pathway was modelled through an LCA and was compared with reference cases available in the ecoinvent® 2.01 database, namely, soybean-based biodiesel production in Brazil (BR) and the United States (US), rapeseed-based biodiesel production in the European Union (EU) and Switzerland (CH) and palm-oil-based biodiesel production in Malaysia (MY). In all cases, the systems were modelled from feedstock production to biodiesel use as B100 in a 28t truck in CH. Furthermore, biodiesel pathways were compared with fossil low-sulphur diesel produced and used in CH. The LCA was performed according to the ISO standards. The life cycle inventory and the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) were performed in Excel spreadsheets using the ecoinvent® 2.01 database. The cumulative energy demand (CED) and the GWP were estimated through the CED for fossil and nuclear energy and the IPCC 2001 (climate change) LCIA methods, respectively. Other impact categories were assessed according to CML 2001, as implemented in ecoinvent. As the product is a fuel for transportation (service), the system was defined for one vehicle kilometre (functional unit) and was divided into seven unit processes, namely, agricultural phase, soybean oil extraction and refining, transesterification, transport to port, transport to the destination country border, distribution and utilisation. Results: The Argentinean pathway results in the highest GWP, CED, AE and HT compared with the reference biofuel pathways. Compared with the fossil reference, all impact categories are higher for the AR case, except for the CED. The most significant factor that contributes to the environmental impact in the Argentinean case varies depending on the evaluated category. Land provision through deforestation for soybean cultivation is the most impacting factor of the AR biodiesel pathway for the GWP, the CED and the HT categories. Whilst nitrogen oxide emissions during the fuel use are the main cause of acidification, nitrate leaching during soybean cultivation is the main factor of eutrophication. LU is almost totally affected by arable land occupation for soybean cultivation. Cypermethrin used as pesticide in feedstock production accounts for almost the total impact on TE and AE. Discussion: The sensitivity analysis shows that an increase of 10% in the soybean yield, whilst keeping the same inputs, will reduce the total impact of the system. Avoiding deforestation is the main challenge to improve the environmental performances of soybean-based biodiesel production in AR. If the soybean expansion can be done on marginal and set-aside agricultural land, the negative impact of the system will be significantly reduced. Further implementation of crops' successions, soybean inoculation, reduced tillage and less toxic pesticides will also improve the environmental performances. Using ethanol as alcohol in the transesterification process could significantly improve the energy balance of the Argentinean pathway. Conclusions: The main explaining factors depend on regional specificities of the system that lead to different results from those obtained in the reference cases. Significantly different results can be obtained depending on the level of detail of the input data, the use of punctual or average data and the assumptions made to build up the LCA inventory. Further improvement of the AR biodiesel pathways should be done in order to comply with international sustainability criteria on biofuel production. Recommendations and perspectives: Due to the influence of land use changes in the final results, more efforts should be made to account for land use changes others than deforestation. More data are needed to determine the part of deforestation attributable to soybean cultivation. More efforts should be done to improve modelling of interaction between variables and previous crops in the agricultural phase, future transesterification technologies and market prices evolution. In order to assess more accurately the environmental impact of soybean-based biodiesel production in Argentina, further considerations should be made to account for indirect land use changes, domestic biodiesel consumption and exportation to other regions, production scale and regional georeferenced differentiation of production system

Impact of agricultural-based biofuel production on greenhouse gas emission from land-use change: Key modelling choices

Recent regulations on biofuels require reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions related to feedstock-specific biofuels. However, the inclusion of GHG emissions from land-use change (LUC) into law and policy remains a subject of active discussion, with LUC–GHG emissions an issue of intense research. This article identifies key modelling choices for assessing the impact of biofuel production on LUC–GHG emissions. The identification of these modelling choices derives from evaluation and critical comparison of models from commonly accepted biofuels–LUC–GHG modelling approaches. The selection and comparison of models were intended to cover factors related to production of agricultural-based biofuel, provision of land for feedstock, and GHG emissions from land-use conversion. However, some fundamental modelling issues are common to all stages of assessment and require resolution, including choice of scale and spatial coverage, approach to accounting for time, and level of aggregation. It is argued here that significant improvements have been made to address LUC–GHG emissions from biofuels. Several models have been created, adapted, coupled, and integrated, but room for improvement remains in representing LUC–GHG emissions from specific biofuel production pathways, as follows: more detailed and integrated modelling of biofuel supply chains; more complete modelling of policy frameworks, accounting for forest dynamics and other drivers of LUC; more heterogeneous modelling of spatial patterns of LUC and associated GHG emissions; and clearer procedures for accounting for the time-dependency of variables. It is concluded that coupling the results of different models is a convenient strategy for addressing effects with different time and space scales. In contrast, model integration requires unified scales and time approaches to provide generalised representations of the system. Guidelines for estimating and reporting LUC–GHG emissions are required to help modellers to define the most suitable approaches and policy makers to better understand the complex impacts of agricultural-based biofuel production

Impact of biofuels production on land-use change and greenhouse gas emissions:methodological framework and system dynamics modeling applied to soybean-based biodiesel production in Argentina

This research assesses the effect of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission constraints imposed in biofuel importing countries on the export potential of biofuel producing countries. Several countries are promoting the introduction of biofuels on their energy matrix through ambitious biofuel mandates but also specify a certain level of GHG emission reduction that biofuels should fulfil. Biofuel producing countries focused on the international market should comply with this criterion in order to supply biofuels to those countries. Biofuel producers should then report the GHG emission saving (GES) of the biofuel they supply. A critical issue in this assessment is the inclusion of GHG emissions from land-use change (LUC) induced by the production of feedstock for biofuels. Focusing on the Argentinean case, this thesis analyses the soybean-based biodiesel export potential of Argentina to the European Union (EU), including the GES threshold imposed in the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED). The thesis therefore focuses on estimating the biofuel GES based on the impact of soybean production on direct land-use changes (dLUC) at the country level. Key factors influencing this result include the policy framework regulating the biofuel supply chain, the evolution of prices and demand for soybean-based products and the feedstock production patterns. The thesis proposes a modeling approach to assess the effect of these factors on soybean-based biodiesel production and exports. The approach is based on a market analysis of soybean and of higher value-added products, a conceptual modeling framework and a simulation model. The market analysis serves as a background study to define the modeling foundations. The conceptual modeling framework specifies the main interaction among producers in the biodiesel supply chain and their link to international markets, land-use changes and GHG emissions. Simulations are then performed to assess how those key factors affect the Argentinean (AR) biodiesel export potential to the EU. To this end, a system dynamics simulation model is developed. The simulation model includes a life cycle assessment model used to estimate the biofuel GES. The research explicitly addresses the allocation of biodiesel production between two types of producers and two market destinations, provided that specific policies regulate the domestic biodiesel industry. Land supply for soybean production is estimated based on the evolution of demand for soybean, competing and higher value-added products. Dynamics in the international markets are addressed through a scenario-based approach to define a plausible scenario of the market evolution. Feedstock production patterns are accounted for by disaggregating soybean production in four different regions (Centre, South-East, North-East and North-West). In each region, the expansion of managed lands is modeled based on the current share of three soybean cultivation methods and seven unmanaged land types. The biofuel GES is finally compared with the EU-RED GES threshold to estimate the biofuel export potential under GHG emission constraints. Results indicate that the impact of biodiesel production on soybean land supply was small compared with the effect of soybean oil and meal exports. While biodiesel production affects mainly soybean oil exports, this effect is still marginal given the biodiesel production level and the economic value attached to soybean meal for the given scenario. Land supply for soybean production therefore seems to depend more on how Argentinean soybean meal exports affect the price of soybean in the international market. Despite the large share of Argentina in the soybean meal export market, this market is likely to be competitive. Biodiesel domestic policy instruments significantly affect the biodiesel export potential, especially when different domestic blending targets are applied. With respect to the national biodiesel mandate large firms are mainly export oriented while small and medium firms exclusively supply the domestic market. Moreover, export taxes seemed to significantly affect the biodiesel export potential through its direct effect on producer profits. Feedstock production patterns largely influence dLUC from soybean production. The supply of cropland for soybean cultivation differs among regions. Higher land productivities and the application of first-occupation no-tillage farming in the Central region led to higher net returns to land and lower land requirements. Soybean cultivation in the Central region leads mainly to displacement of other crops and pastures, given constraints in land availability. Cropland supply in other regions resulted in higher dLUC due to lower land productivities and the application of conventional tillage that lead to lower yields. In the South-East and North- East regions cropland expanded mainly into mixed land, grassland and shrubland. In the North-West region, cropland expansion into forests resulted in significant GHG emissions from dLUC. The allocation of dLUC from cropland expansion to biodiesel resulted in different biodiesel export potentials. Producers located in the C region seemed to be those with the highest potential for exporting biodiesel, given their higher profits and higher GES compared with other regions. Producers in the C region can supply biodiesel to the export market with a GES of 45% complying with the EU-RED GES threshold, at least until 2017. If no dLUC occurs, the GES for biodiesel produced in this region rises to 57%. Supply by other regions to the international market is constrained by the non compliance with the GES threshold. Perspectives for further research include additional simulations to assess the biofuel GES and the export potential under other market scenarios and policy contexts. The modeling framework may be extended to the individual producer level and may also be linked to a global approach to improve the modeling of market interactions in the world economy and the accounting of indirect land-use change. Finally, the extension to geographic information systems (GIS) can improve the representation of land heterogeneity and the induced land-use changes from soybean production

Methods and tools to evaluate the availability of renewable energy sources

The recent statements of both the European Union and the US Presidency pushed in the direction of using renewable forms of energy, in order to act against climate changes induced by the growing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In this paper, a survey regarding methods and tools presently available to determine potential and exploitable energy in the most important renewable sectors (i.e., solar, wind, wave, biomass and geothermal energy) is presented. Moreover, challenges for each renewable resource are highlighted as well as the available tools that can help in evaluating the use of a mix of different sources

Estimating greenhouse gas emissions from indirect land-use change in biofuels production: concepts and exploratory analysis for soybean-based biodiesel production

Due to changes in carbon stock of soil and biomass, indirect land-use change (ILUC) has consequences on green house gas (GHG) balance of a biofuel that are not presently considered in evaluation of environmental merits of biofuels. Significant changes in land-use are expected to occur in biofuel producing countries and their consequences may affect global markets. This paper aims to: 1) Review state-of- art of accounting for indirect effects in biofuels production and their influence on GHG balance of a biofuel pathway; 2) Present a model to estimate and optimize GHG emissions from LUC; and 3) Estimate potential GHG emissions for the case of soybean-based biodiesel production. ILUC concepts and a classification of ILUC sources are proposed. Then a methodological framework to quantify GHG emissions is discussed and applied to the case study. Different scenarios to achieve demand are proposed and their implications related to ILUC are determined. Using a system-wide approach and a non-linear programming (NLP) model, GHG emissions are evaluated in terms of carbon pay back time and optimized based on soybean supply strategy to produce biodiesel

Estimating greenhouse gas emissions from indirect land-use change in biofuels production: concepts and exploratory analysis for soybean-based biodiesel

1017-1030Due to changes in carbon stock of soil and biomass, indirect land-use change (ILUC) has consequences on green house gas (GHG) balance of a biofuel that are not presently considered in evaluation of environmental merits of biofuels. Significant changes in land-use are expected to occur in biofuel producing countries and their consequences may affect global markets. This paper aims to: 1) Review state-of- art of accounting for indirect effects in biofuels production and their influence on GHG balance of a biofuel pathway; 2) Present a model to estimate and optimize GHG emissions from LUC; and 3) Estimate potential GHG emissions for the case of soybean-based biodiesel production. ILUC concepts and a classification of ILUC sources are proposed. Then a methodological framework to quantify GHG emissions is discussed and applied to the case study. Different scenarios to achieve demand are proposed and their implications related to ILUC are determined. Using a system-wide approach and a non-linear programming (NLP) model, GHG emissions are evaluated in terms of carbon pay back time and optimized based on soybean supply strategy to produce biodiesel

Life cycle assessment of biofuels: Energy and greenhouse gas balances

The promotion of biofuels as energy for transportation in the industrialized countries is mainly driven by the perspective of oil depletion, the concerns about energy security and global warming. However due to sustainability constraints, biofuels will replace only 10 to 15% of fossil liquid fuels in the transport sector. Several governments have defined a minimum target of GHG emissions reduction for those biofuels that will be eligible to public incentives, for example a 35% emissions reduction in case of biofuels in Members States of the European Union. This article points out the significant biases in estimating GHG balances of biofuels stemming from modelling choices about system definition and boundaries, functional unit, reference systems and allocation methods. The extent to which these choices influence the results is investigated. After performing a comparison and constructive criticism of various modelling choices, the LCA of wheat-to-bioethanol is used as an illustrative case where bioethanol is blended with gasoline at various percentages (E5, E10 and E85). The performance of these substitution options is evaluated as well. The results show a large difference in the reduction of the GHG emissions with a high sensitivity to the following factors: the method used to allocate the impacts between the co-products, the type of reference systems, the choice of the functional unit and the type of blend. The authors come out with some recommendations for basing the estimation of energy and GHG balances of biofuels on principles such as transparency, consistency and accuracy