Integration of farm fossil fuel use with local scale assessments of biofuel feedstock production in Canada

Abstract

The viability of Canadian biofuel industries will depend on farm energy consumption rates and the CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use for feedstock crops. The types of biofuels that are under development in Canada include biodiesel, grain ethanol, cellulosic ethanol and biomass. Each of these fuels relies on a distinct class of feedstock crops and in each case the most suitable crop is also dependent on geographic location. For example, the feedstock for biodiesel is canola in Western Canada and soybeans in Eastern Canada (Dyer et al., 2010a). For grain ethanol, the feedstock choices are corn in the east and wheat in the west (Klein and LeRoy, 2007). Cellulosic ethanol is still under development in Canada.