 Does biodiesel make sense?Luiz A.H. Nogueira Energy, 2011, vol. 36, issue 6, 3659-3666 Abstract: In several countries biodiesel blending programs have been implemented looking for reduction in fossil fuel dependence and environmental benefits, including climate change mitigation. The current global biodiesel production, from different fatty raw materials, reaches about 6 billion liters per year and represents 10% of whole biofuel production. Nevertheless, in many cases the actual advantages of biodiesel production and usage are not clearly evaluated. Essentially, the feasibility of biodiesel production can be determined by its efficiency in solar energy conversion, as indicated by agro-industrial productivity and energy balance parameters, which expresses a relative demand of natural resources (land and energy) to produce biofuel. Taking into account the Brazilian conditions, in this paper an assessment of biodiesel production is presented, comparing four different productive systems. According to this evaluation, soybean and castor are limitedly feasible, whereas tallow and palm oil represent more suitable alternatives. The selection of an efficient productive system is crucial for the rationality of biodiesel production. Keywords: Biodiesel feasibility; Biodiesel energy balance; Biodiesel raw material; Biodiesel in Brazil (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:36:y:2011:i:6:p:3659-3666 DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2010.08.035 Access Statistics for this article Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser More articles in Energy from Elsevier |
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