Page 194 - Biofuels for a More Sustainable Future

176 Biofuels for a More Sustainable Future

sun-drying, and transportation of oilseeds; extraction of oil and other med-
icines and coproducts from those seeds; esterification of Pongamia,
Hibiscus-Vernicia crude oils to obtain biodiesel (fatty acid methyl esters);
distribution and use of biodiesel in daily buses, including Ha Noi city buses,
and long-distance buses from Ha Noi to Quang Ninh and other Central and
Southern cities, and coal mining dump trucks and cruise ships Quang Ninh
Province; Hibiscus leaves and Pongamia, Hibiscus-Vernicia deoiled cake
used as composts back to the cultivation field to offset a certain amount
of mineral fertilizer use according to the nutrient component in dry matter.
Vernicia trees have a long lifetime of about 50–70years (Nipakhonsom
et al., 2012) and their maximum production can last for 30–40years (Berna ´l
et al., 2014; Morton, 1987). Likewise, Pongamia has perennial nature with
>80years lifespan (Chandrashekar et al., 2012). Furthermore, the lifetime of
oil mills for oil extraction and chemical plants for the esterification of veg-
etable oil mostly ranges from 25 to 50years (Azadi et al., 2014; Jungbluth
et al., 2007). Therefore the project lifetime in this study was set to 30years.
The functional unit for the life cycle assessment was 1-year biodiesel com-
bustion in designated vehicles in Northern Viet Nam, which consume
60,000 kiloliters of fuel annually.

3 Inclusive impact index (Triple I)
Triple I was used as a final indicator for the sustainability assessment
(Eq. 6.1).

III ¼ EF BCÞ + α C BÞ + βHR + γERŠ (6.1)
ð
½
ð
where EF is ecological footprint (global hectare (gha)); BC is biocapacity
(gha); ER is ecological risk; C is costs (US $); B is benefits (US $); HR is
human risk; and α, β, and γ are the conversion factors from economic value
(US $) to gha, from HR value to economic value (US $), and from ER value
to economic value (US $), respectively. The estimation of all parameters in
Triple I was conducted following the Triple I framework developed by
Nguyen et al. (2017), in which an LCA tool so-called IMPACTS 2002+
was adopted to estimate the HR—human health impacts [Disability
1
Adjusted Life Years per person (DALY pers )] and ER—ecosystem quality
2
impacts [Potential Disappeared Fraction of species on 1 m of earth’s surface
1
during 1 year (PDF m 2 year )]. EF and BC were calculated under the life
cycle-based ecological footprint assessment (Huijbregts et al., 2008) with