Abstract:A Jatropha‐biofuel chain was organized in the north‐west of Cameroon. The aim of the project was to implement an integrated biofuel chain, based on nontoxic Jatropha cultivation, which could provide vegetable oil for energy use instead of fossil fuel and, contemporary supply cake protein for the rural population. The main objective of this study was to quantify the cumulative energy demand (CED) and global warming potential (GHG) in obtaining Jatropha vegetable oil (JVO) as biofuel in comparison with conventio… Show more
Section: Environmental Impacts Of Biofuelsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Figure 7Fossil energy use in the life cycle of biofuels. Based on data from [17–19,40,47,48,54,55,57,58,60,68,76,77,80,85,89,92,93,95,96,98,108,113–115,120,121,129,132,133,136,138,139,143,144,147,152–154,156,159,161,162,164–167,169–171,175,176, 179–181,187,190–192,195–199,204,206,208,219–223]. For the box plot legend, see electronic supplementary material, figure S1 and for the data used to plot this graph, see electronic supplementary material, figure S7.…”
Section: Environmental Impacts Of Biofuelsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Various indicators have been used in LCA studies to quantify energy use in the life cycle of biofuels, including fossil energy consumption, primary, secondary or cumulative energy demand and net energy ratio [218]. However, many focused on fossil energy consumption, given that [179][180][181]187,[190][191][192][195][196][197][198][199]204,206,208,[219][220][221][222][223]. For the box plot legend, see electronic supplementary material, figure S1 and for the data used to plot this graph, see electronic supplementary material, figure S7.…”
Biofuels are being promoted as a low-carbon alternative to fossil fuels as they could help to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the related climate change impact from transport. However, there are also concerns that their wider deployment could lead to unintended environmental consequences. Numerous life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have considered the climate change and other environmental impacts of biofuels. However, their findings are often conflicting, with a wide variation in the estimates. Thus, the aim of this paper is to review and analyse the latest available evidence to provide a greater clarity and understanding of the environmental impacts of different liquid biofuels. It is evident from the review that the outcomes of LCA studies are highly situational and dependent on many factors, including the type of feedstock, production routes, data variations and methodological choices. Despite this, the existing evidence suggests that, if no land-use change (LUC) is involved, first-generation biofuels can—on average—have lower GHG emissions than fossil fuels, but the reductions for most feedstocks are insufficient to meet the GHG savings required by the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED). However, second-generation biofuels have, in general, a greater potential to reduce the emissions, provided there is no LUC. Third-generation biofuels do not represent a feasible option at present state of development as their GHG emissions are higher than those from fossil fuels. As also discussed in the paper, several studies show that reductions in GHG emissions from biofuels are achieved at the expense of other impacts, such as acidification, eutrophication, water footprint and biodiversity loss. The paper also investigates the key methodological aspects and sources of uncertainty in the LCA of biofuels and provides recommendations to address these issues.
Section: Environmental Impacts Of Biofuelsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Figure 7Fossil energy use in the life cycle of biofuels. Based on data from [17–19,40,47,48,54,55,57,58,60,68,76,77,80,85,89,92,93,95,96,98,108,113–115,120,121,129,132,133,136,138,139,143,144,147,152–154,156,159,161,162,164–167,169–171,175,176, 179–181,187,190–192,195–199,204,206,208,219–223]. For the box plot legend, see electronic supplementary material, figure S1 and for the data used to plot this graph, see electronic supplementary material, figure S7.…”
Section: Environmental Impacts Of Biofuelsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Various indicators have been used in LCA studies to quantify energy use in the life cycle of biofuels, including fossil energy consumption, primary, secondary or cumulative energy demand and net energy ratio [218]. However, many focused on fossil energy consumption, given that [179][180][181]187,[190][191][192][195][196][197][198][199]204,206,208,[219][220][221][222][223]. For the box plot legend, see electronic supplementary material, figure S1 and for the data used to plot this graph, see electronic supplementary material, figure S7.…”
Biofuels are being promoted as a low-carbon alternative to fossil fuels as they could help to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the related climate change impact from transport. However, there are also concerns that their wider deployment could lead to unintended environmental consequences. Numerous life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have considered the climate change and other environmental impacts of biofuels. However, their findings are often conflicting, with a wide variation in the estimates. Thus, the aim of this paper is to review and analyse the latest available evidence to provide a greater clarity and understanding of the environmental impacts of different liquid biofuels. It is evident from the review that the outcomes of LCA studies are highly situational and dependent on many factors, including the type of feedstock, production routes, data variations and methodological choices. Despite this, the existing evidence suggests that, if no land-use change (LUC) is involved, first-generation biofuels can—on average—have lower GHG emissions than fossil fuels, but the reductions for most feedstocks are insufficient to meet the GHG savings required by the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED). However, second-generation biofuels have, in general, a greater potential to reduce the emissions, provided there is no LUC. Third-generation biofuels do not represent a feasible option at present state of development as their GHG emissions are higher than those from fossil fuels. As also discussed in the paper, several studies show that reductions in GHG emissions from biofuels are achieved at the expense of other impacts, such as acidification, eutrophication, water footprint and biodiversity loss. The paper also investigates the key methodological aspects and sources of uncertainty in the LCA of biofuels and provides recommendations to address these issues.
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