Energy life-cycle analysis of soybean biodiesel: Effects of tillage and water management

Roxana Piastrellini, Alejandro Pablo Arena and Bárbara Civit

Energy, 2017, vol. 126, issue C, 13-20

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to carry out an updated energy Life-Cycle Assessment of soybean biodiesel produced in the Pampean region of Argentina and to analyze the influence of different tillage systems on the Energy Return on Investment (EROI). It aims to identify the processes, materials and methodological aspects that significantly affect biofuel EROI. The procedure considers the main processes and operations of both the agriculture and industrial stages of biofuel production system, but the main novelty of this study is linking EROI with farming and conservation practices and not in the chemical processing of the oil. The results obtained represent the current average energetic performance of soy-based biodiesel produced in the considered region. The EROI values are very encouraging, demonstrating that this biodiesel provides a net energy gain. The results also show that conservation agriculture and the implementation of practices that improve crop yield do not always determine better energetic performance. Sensitivity analysis confirms that EROI values of soybean biodiesel are more responsive to methodological choices such as the system's boundary definition and the choice of the allocation method rather than to the physical aspects of the productive system such as tillage and water management practices.

Keywords: Biofuel; Energy return on investment; Agricultural practices; Allocation criteria; System boundaries; Argentina (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544217303869
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:126:y:2017:i:c:p:13-20

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2017.03.028

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().