Biodiesel GHG Emissions, Past, Present and Future

The energy balance and greenhouse gas emissions of biofuels remain a controversial topic in the popular press, with government policy makers, and within the academic community. Most of the discussion is based on the existing (or past) performance of biofuel technologies and therefore may not be representative of future developments in the industry. This project addresses three specific issues with respect to the GHG emissions from the production and use of biodiesel.

1. The GHG emissions for biodiesel are estimated for the years 1995, 2005, and 2015. The GHGenius model is used for these calculations, as it is well set up to model biodiesel production with multiple feedstocks over different time periods.

2. Investigating the production parameters for specific aspects of similar feedstock in different countries may allow for the identification of any differences in GHG emissions for the same process in different countries.

3. The third part of the work is to analyze some of the estimates of GHG emissions that have been made for biodiesel production. The intent is not to determine which one is correct or best, but to understand why there are differences.

Life cycle assessments (LCA) are included for Rapeseed, Soyabean, Palm and Waste oils, and take into account nitrogen fertiliser utilization, yields, extraction, production, etc., as well as a number of other factors that impact on the overall assessment of GHG production.