Page 195 - Biofuels for a More Sustainable Future

Inedible vegetable-oil based biodiesel in Northern Viet Nam 177

updated equivalent factors according to a new guideline from Global Foot-
print Network (Lin et al., 2016). Life cycle costing (LCC) was applied to
estimate cost and benefit parameters of Triple I. The development and cal-
culation of the entire system were operated by integrating Simapro 8.5 with
a spreadsheet.

3.1 Ecological footprint and biocapacity estimation method

Ecological footprints related to the production of raw materials and their
transportation and energy used were supported by Simapro 8.5. This study
only considered yearly average carbon storage in standing biomass (Vernicia
and Pongamia trees) and harvested Vernicia seeds, based on proportion of
Vernicia oil sold for uses other than producing biodiesel. Carbon embodied
in other agricultural residues (leaves and branches) and oil cake were not
considered because the absorbed CO 2 would release back to the environ-
ment due to burning or composting. Moreover, due to the carbon cycle,
CO 2 content in calyces used for food supplies would release back to the
environment right after consumption. Yield factor was calculated with data
of 2014 from FAOSTAT (2017). Accordingly, yield factor for cereals is
1.43ha wha 1 (wha is the world average hectares of a given land-use type)
1
and oil crops is 1.05ha wha . Land occupation other than for oil crop cul-
tivation was not included in this calculation.
When using an area for oil crop propagation, that area will turn into ara-
ble land. Since the cultivation was practiced in mine dumping sites and other
the marginal lands, this would result in the gain of the agricultural productive
area, meaning an increase in biocapacity. The required plantation area to
acquire a certain expected amount of biodiesel was estimated by integrating
biodiesel production efficiency with Pongamia and Hibiscus and Vernicia
seed yields and their oil contents. If the total required area was less than avail-
able area in Northern Viet Nam, this indicated the (+) biocapacity of the
system. Vice versa, if the total required area was larger than the available
one, this was indicative of the ecological footprint or ( ) biocapacity. Then,
the final biocapacity was the sum of (+) and ( ) biocapacity.

3.2 Conversion factor calculation
Several scholars noted the close relationship between countries’ gross
domestic product (GDP) and their ecological footprints (Rainham and
McDowell, 2005). Therefore to convert from economic value to global
hectare, the ratio of total EF of the country/region, where the target system