Environmental footprint of biodiesel production from mexican Jatropha curcas cultivated on marginal soils

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess environmental footprint associated with biodiesel production using a Mexican ecotype of Jatropha curcas as raw material, which has a seed production potential of 1021 kg/ha even when being cultivated in marginal land with minimal water resources and biofertilization. Life-cycle assessment methodology was used to assess the environmental footprint through 18 midpoint impact categories through Hierarchical ReCiPe method 2016. The production system is comprised of the following stage: (i) obtaining raw material, (ii) oil extraction, and (iii) biodiesel production. Among the most relevant results, this system showed 27.56 kg CO2 eq/GJ biodiesel of potential emissions in global warming and 0.527 GJ fossil energy/GJ biodiesel in energy consumption. Due to fact that minimal resources were invested in Jatropha curcas cultivation stage, the oil extraction stage showed the greatest impacts in 14 of 18 impact categories evaluated, mainly due to the electricity consumption used in the fruit skin and seed shells separation process, which had 80 % of contribution. The Mexican ecotype of Jatropha curcas is promising as a raw material for biodiesel production because the production system evaluated in this study showed reductions in the environmental impacts compared to a system that uses Jatropha curcas under irrigation and fertilization cultivation.