From Diesel to Biofuel: Greening ANFO Through Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

The study of ANFO (ammonium nitrate fuel oil) explosive offers significant benefits for the construction industry, particularly in terms of efficiency and cost reduction. This article compares two types of ANFO: one using conventional diesel oil and the other using a biofuel composition. The methodology applied is life cycle assessment (LCA), following the guidelines of ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards. The LCA was conducted using the available Ecoinvent database and the SimaPro software. The inventory used for the simulation was extracted from the Ecoinvent database. The two compositions were compared using different methods, and in all cases, the biofuel composition demonstrated superior environmental performance. This result shows that, although the biofuel used contains a high concentration of diesel (96%), a small alteration positively impacts environmental outcomes. A 4% modification in ANFO composition, replacing conventional fuel oil with biofuel, led to over a 10% reduction in environmental impact across two assessment methods. The study shows significant reductions in impact scores, highlighting biofuel as a more sustainable alternative for ANFO explosives. This demonstrates the potential of small compositional changes to achieve substantial environmental benefits.