Page 110 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

96 K. T. Lee and C. Ofori-Boateng

Encinar et al. 2005). Moreover, biodiesel on combustion is reported to release
insignificant amount of air emissions compared to fossil fuel (Antolin et al. 2002).
Biodiesel production processes utilize fossil-based fuels as main energy sour-
ces; thus, their emission effects add to the concentration of CO 2 in the atmosphere
resulting in global warming. As reported by Roger et al. (2011), the production of
1 t of biodiesel from any feedstock averagely adds not less than 916 kg CO 2 to
what is already in the atmosphere. Therefore, it can be inferred from these sce-
narios that energy use in biodiesel production processes is directly related to the
emissions associated with its production thus needed to quantify these emissions
and strategically allocate improvement measures. Life cycle assessment (LCA)
presents a better assessment tool to quantify the environmental burdens associated
with biodiesel over its life cycle. An LCA well-to-wheel assessment of palm oil
biodiesel is discussed in this chapter.
LCA, also referred to as ecobalance analysis, is a technique used to quantify
environmental impacts associated with the various stages of a product’s life from
raw material extraction through materials processing, distribution, use, repair, and
maintenance, as well as waste management. The methodology of LCA brings out a
wide outlook on the environmental burdens of a product because it considers a
thorough inventory of energy, material inputs, and emissions; quantifies the
potential environmental impacts associated with the specified inputs and emis-
sions; and finally interprets the results which aid in policy making and
implementation.
Currently, there has been a controversial debating issue on the environmental
sustainability of biodiesel since its production makes use of great amount of fossil
fuel which puts so much burden on the environment. The most important factor
which affects the sustainability of biodiesel production is the choice of feedstock
since each feedstock as well as its cultivation technology has its own specific
ecological footprint. For instance, the environmental sustainability of palm oil
production and subsequent conversion into biodiesel is characterized by land use,
soil quality management, and genetic biodiversity (Parish et al. 2008). Biodiesel
production from virgin feedstock such as palm oil is less sustainable than that from
waste cooking oil (WCO) in terms of environmental impacts because the culti-
vation stage of WCO is eliminated from the life cycle assessment stage. None-
theless, first generation biodiesel (FGB) feedstock, such as palm oil, soybean oil,
rapeseed oil, has been pioneered and continued to saturate the biodiesel market
until the commercial production of second and third generation feedstock become
exceedingly sustainable over FGB feedstock.

1.1 Global Palm Oil Production Profile

Palm oil presents a better and attractive feedstock for biodiesel production com-
pared to other first and second generation feedstock because of its high oil yield
(averagely 8.6 t per hectare of land) which is almost three times more than that for