31/08/2020
No wonder that biodiesel produced from crops have gained momentum in the past 4 decades or so due to their ‘allegedly’ positive environmental image compared to petroleum diesel. It is true that biodiesel is more environmentally sound when it comes to its use in a combustion engine compared to fossil diesel, however, guess what, crop-based biodiesel can have several adverse environmental impacts over its life cycle. Notwithstanding their ameliorated performance in diesel combustion engines, the conversion of forests for the cultivation of biomass and energy crops (also known as direct land use change ‘LUC’) leads to the loss of carbon stocks (1). Hence, expansion of biomass-based croplands might as well jeopardize the existence of valuable carbon sinks such as forests and peatlands. In like manner, the expansion of crop-based biofuel production entails excessive use of nitrogen fertilizers ultimately leading to the contamination of groundwater aquifers as well as eutrophication of surface water bodies, thus, hampering efforts to comply with the water protection quality standards (2). Similarly, bioenergy production can displace croplands that were previously destined for food production or (also known as indirect land use change ‘ILUC’) (3). While such agricultural activities are displaced, their continuation are crucial to the food security. Consequently, the LUC and ILUC patterns associated with the production of bioenergy can adversely alter the net GHG savings (1).
Biodiesel constitutes more than 3% of the total fuel consumption and more than 60% of all biofuels consumed in Germany in 2017 (i.e. Ca 2 million tonnes of biodiesel) (4). Biodiesel typically produced in Germany is considered as First-Generation Biodiesel, which utilizes food sources and crops for their production (5). According to the German Association of Biodiesel Producers (Verband der Deutschen Biokraftstoffindustrie, VDB), 3.2 million tonnes of biodiesel were produced in 2018 with a total acreage of 11.8 million hectares (i.e. 4.7% of German arable land), of which 68% were derived from energy crops (i.e. 58% were sourced from rapeseed [1.86 million tonnes], 2% from palm [0.064 million tonnes], and 8% from soybean [0.064 million tonnes]) and 27% from waste cooking oil (6).
The German biodiesel sector under the present scenario is seemingly unsustainable due to several reasons linked to the three pillars of sustainability (7). On a societal note, indirect land use change - primarily induced by a crop-based biodiesel cultivation – can risk truncating jobs in other sectors such as agriculture. Environmentally speaking, although the consumption of biofuels – particularly biodiesel in the transport sector – has a decent GHG mitigation effect, the global warming potential of the ‘often neglected’ processes and associated impacts – such as LUC and ILUC – can be high enough to neutralize the anticipated net savings in certain cases (8)(9)(10). Moreover, crop-based biodiesel production gives rise to other severe ecosystem issues such as eutrophication as a result of the use of fertilizers (11)(12).
The infographic below – created by our beloved R&D team – offers a snippet of the unsustainability outlook of the biodiesel sector in Germany. Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts in the comments…
Sources
[1] Blanco G., R. Gerlagh, S. Suh, J. Barrett, H.C. de Coninck, C.F. Diaz Morejon, R. Mathur, N. Nakicenovic, A. Ofosu Ahenkora, J. Pan, H. Pathak, J. Rice, R. Richels, S.J. Smith, D.I. Stern, F.L. Toth, and P. Zhou. Drivers, Trends and Mitigation. In: Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. NY, USA: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
[2] German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW). Profile of the German Water Sector. Bonn Wirtschafts- und Verlagsgesellschaft Gas und Wasser mbH, 2015. ISBN 978-3-89554-211-4.
[3] Bhatia, S.C.. 26 - Issues relating to biofuels. Advanced Renewable Energy Systems. Woodhead Publishing India, 2014.
[4] (FNR), Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe e.V. BIOENERGY IN GERMANY FACTS AND FIGURES 2019. Gülzow-Prüzen, Germany : Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe e.V. (FNR), 2019.
[5] Arthur Lee, Roland and Lavoie, Jean-Michel. From first- to third-generation biofuels: Challenges of producing a commodity from a biomass of increasing complexity. s.l. : Animal Frontiers, 2013. Volume 3, Issue 2.
[6] (VDB), Verband der Deutschen Biokraftstoffindustrie. Rohstoffe für Biodiesel 2018 mehr Raps und Altspeisefette, deutlich weniger Palm. http://www.biokraftstoffverband.de/. [Online] May 21, 2019. [Cited: March 25, 2020.] http://www.biokraftstoffverband.de/index.php/detail/items/rohstoffe-fuerbiodiesel-2018-mehr-raps-und-altspeisefette-deutlich-weniger-palm.html.
[7] Amos, Arowoshegbe, Uniamikogbo, Emmanuel and Atu, Gina. SUSTAINABILITY AND TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE: AN OVERVIEW OF TWO INTERRELATED CONCEPTS. 2018.
[8] Chum, H., A. Faaij, J. Moreira, G. Berndes, P. Dhamija, H. D**g, B. Gabrielle, A. Goss Eng, W. Lucht, M. Mapako, O. Masera Cerutti, T. McIntyre, T. Minowa, K. Pingoud. Bioenergy. In IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 2011.
[9] Ahlgren, Serina and Di Lucia, Lorenzo. Indirect land use changes of biofuel production - a review of modelling efforts and policy developments in the European Union. Iss. 35, Lund: Biotechnology for Biofuels, 2014, Vol. Vol. 7.
[10] Khanna, Madhu, L. Crago, Christine and Black, Mairi. Can biofuels be a solution to climate change? The implications of land use change-related emissions for policy. Urbana: Interface Focus, 2011, Vol. 1.
[11] Castanheira, Erica Geraldes; Grisoli, Renata; Coelho, Suani; da Silva, Gil Anderi; Freire, Fausto. Life-cycle assessment of soybean-based biodiesel in Europe: comparing grain, oil and biodiesel import from Brazil: Journal of Cleaner Production, Sao Paulo, 2015, Volume 102.
[12] Panichelli, L., Dauriat, A. and Gnansounou, E.. Life cycle assessment of soybean-based biodiesel in Argentina for export. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 2009, Vol. 14. Iss. 2: ISSN1614- 7502.
