Spatial Life Cycle Analysis of Soybean-Based Biodiesel Production in Indiana, USA Using Process Modeling
Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) has long been utilized for decision making about the sustainability of products. LCA provides information about the total emissions generated for a given functional unit of a product, which is utilized by industries or consumers for comparing two products with regards to environmental performance. However, many existing LCAs utilize data that is representative of an average system with regards to life cycle stage, thus providing an aggregate picture. It has been shown that regional variation may lead to large variation in the environmental impacts of a product, specifically dealing with energy consumption, related emissions and resource consumptions. Hence, improving the reliability of LCA results for decision making with regards to environmental performance needs regional models to be incorporated for building a life cycle inventory that is representative of the origin of products from a certain region. In this work, we present the integration of regionalized data from process systems models and other sources to build regional LCA models and quantify the spatial variations per unit of biodiesel produced in the state of Indiana for environmental impact. In order to include regional variation, we have incorporated information about plant capacity for producing biodiesel from North and Central more »
Authors:
;
Award ID(s):
Publication Date:
NSF-PAR ID:
10177536
Journal Name:
Processes
Volume:
8
Issue:
4
Page Range or eLocation-ID:
392
ISSN:
2227-9717
2. The objective of this research is to evaluate the effects of cropping choices on land, water use for irrigation, and greenhouse gas emissions after introducing canola (Brassica napus L.) cultivation for the production of 60 million gallons of biodiesel per year. Characterization of regional farm-level cropping patterns and agronomic inputs and economic data are used to model the adoption of canola in place of the diverse incumbent cropping patterns in four regions of California: Northern and Southern San Joaquin Valleys, Sacramento Valley, and Southern California, using the Bioenergy Crop Adoption Model. The life cycle assessment approach is then used to assess environmental impacts due to cultivation of canola in place of the incumbent cropping patterns in terms of: (1) land use; (2) life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions due to direct land use change (kg CO2e ac-1); (3) greenhouse gas emissions due to irrigation water (kg CO2e ac-1); and (4) life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions expressed in grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per megajoule of biodiesel. Preliminary results show the adoption price of the canola with a yield of 1.5 U.S. tons per acre is estimated to be $481 per ton of canola in 2012 dollars at which point a total of 508,400more » 3. The objective of this research is to evaluate the effects of cropping choices on land, water use for irrigation, and greenhouse gas emissions after introducing canola (Brassica napus L.) cultivation for the production of 60 million gallons of biodiesel per year. Characterization of regional farm-level cropping patterns and agronomic inputs and economic data are used to model the adoption of canola in place of the diverse incumbent cropping patterns in four regions of California: Northern and Southern San Joaquin Valleys, Sacramento Valley, and Southern California, using the Bioenergy Crop Adoption Model. The life cycle assessment approach is then used to assess environmental impacts due to cultivation of canola in place of the incumbent cropping patterns in terms of: (1) land use; (2) life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions due to direct land use change (kg CO2e ac-1); (3) greenhouse gas emissions due to irrigation water (kg CO2e ac-1); and (4) life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions expressed in grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per megajoule of biodiesel. Preliminary results show the adoption price of the canola with a yield of 1.5 U.S. tons per acre is estimated to be$481 per ton of canola in 2012 dollars at which point a total of 508,400more »