Page 109 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

Life Cycle Assessment of Biodiesel
from Palm Oil

Keat Teong Lee and Cynthia Ofori-Boateng

Abstract Though the energy balance for the cultivation of oil palm biomass for
biodiesel production is positive, current debate has been raised on its environ-
mental 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, car-
cinogens, 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.

1 Introduction

The increasingly high cost, fast rate of exhaustion and negative impacts of fossil
fuel’s combustion on the environment have caused almost all economic sectors of
the world to consider new lasting sources of energy to replace fossil fuels.
Biodiesel has recorded tremendous growth rate in its consumption and pro-
duction over the past decade due to its positive environmental impacts (as well as
other unique characteristics, e.g., biodegradability, non-toxicity, renewability)
hence considered a feasible petro–diesel replacement (Vicente et al. 2004;

K. T. Lee (&) C. Ofori-Boateng
School of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), 14300 Nibong Tebal,
Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
e-mail: chktlee@eng.usm.my

A. Singh et al. (eds.), Life Cycle Assessment of Renewable Energy Sources, 95
Green Energy and Technology, DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4471-5364-1_5,
Ó Springer-Verlag London 2013