Accounting for the constrained availability of land: a comparison of biobased ethanol, polyethylene, and PLA with regard to non-renewable energy use and land use
In a bio-based economy, chemicals, materials, biofuels, and other forms of energy will be produced
from biomass. Pressure on agricultural land will thus increase, calling for highly effi cient solutions in terms of
land use, with minimal environmental impacts. In order to gain better insight into the available options and their
trade-offs, this perspective studies the production of polylactic acid (PLA), bioethanol, and bio-based polyethylene
(PE) from wheat, maize, sugarbeet, sugarcane, and Miscanthus. While in current agricultural practice
some plants are harvested and used as whole crop (e.g. Miscanthus), for others only part of the plant is
used, with the remainder being returned to the fi eld (e.g. wheat straw). In order to obtain an understanding of
the unused potential we assume as default case that all agricultural residues and processing co-products are
used for energy purposes, thereby replacing non-renewable energy. We conclude that this agricultural practice
would allow to substantially reduce non-renewable energy use (NREU). We also fi nd a clear difference in ranking
depending on whether we study (i) NREU per (metric) tonne of product or (ii) Avoided NREU per hectare of land. The latter seems a suitable choice in a world where land availability is limited. In this case, we identify
PLA as the preferred choice, irrespective of the type of crop. The production of ethanol for the replacement of
fuels scores as the worst option for all crops. For each of the products studied, sugarcane offers the highest
savings per hectare followed by sugarbeet