Page 278 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

A Comparison of Life Cycle Assessment
Studies of Different Biofuels

Dheeraj Rathore, Deepak Pant and Anoop Singh

Abstract The intensive increase of biofuel demand has pushed the researchers to
find a sustainable biofuel production system. LCA is the most accepted tool to assess
the sustainability of biofuel production systems. The functional unit, scope, system
boundary, reference system, data source, and allocation are the most important steps
of an LCA study. Variations in these steps between studies affect the results sig-
nificantly. Previous studies have shown that different biofuel feedstocks have dif-
ferent environmental burden hot spots, which refer to elevated greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions associated with a specific life cycle stage or facility process. The
present chapter is an effort to compare various LCA studies on different biofuels. The
well-to-wheel (cradle-to-grave) system is recommended for the assessment of bio-
fuels production system. An LCA study of biofuels can demonstrate their sustain-
ability and can guide the policy makers in adopting the policies for their promotions.

1 Introduction

Biofuels are plant-derived energy sources that can either be burnt directly for heat
or converted to a liquid fuel such as ethanol, biodiesel, biogas, biohydrogen (Davis
et al. 2009; Nigam and Singh 2011). The global biofuel sector has grown

D. Rathore
Department of Conservation Biology, School of Biological Science, College of Natural and
Mathematical Sciences, University of Dodoma, Dodoma, Tanzania
e-mail: rathoredheeraj5@gmail.com
D. Pant
Separation and Conversion Technology, Flemish Institute for Technological Research
(VITO), Mol, Belgium
e-mail: deepak.pant@vito.be; pantonline@gmail.com
A. Singh (&)
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science and
Technology, Technology Bhawan, New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi 110016, India
e-mail: apsinghenv@gmail.com

A. Singh et al. (eds.), Life Cycle Assessment of Renewable Energy Sources, 269
Green Energy and Technology, DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4471-5364-1_12,
Ó Springer-Verlag London 2013