Life cycle assessment of biodiesel from palm oil

Abstract

Though the energy balance for the cultivation of oil palm biomass for biodiesel production is positive, current debate has been raised on its environmental sustainability due to the high consumption of fossil fuel, fertilizer, and pesticides. This chapter employs the well-to-wheel variant of life cycle analysis (LCA) to assess the various potential environmental impacts, energy and land use/conversion impacts associated with the production of biodiesel from palm oil. Eleven (11) main impact categories, namely land use, fossil fuel use, climate change, ozone layer depletion potential, minerals/heavy metals, acidification/eutrophication potential, ionizing radiation potential, ecotoxicity potentials, carcinogens, respiratory organics, and respiratory in organics based on Eco-Indicator 99, are analyzed and discussed. Excluding transportation impacts, the oil palm cultivation stage contributed the highest overall environmental impacts (44 % of the total impacts) compared to the other stages. On the other hand, fossil fuel consumption was highest (43 % of total impacts) in the transesterification unit exclusive of all impacts from transportation.