Environmental Impact Associated with the Supply Chain and Production of Biodiesel from Jatropha curcas L. through Life Cycle Analysis

Mario R. Giraldi-Díaz, Lorena De Medina-Salas, Eduardo Castillo-González and Max De la Cruz-Benavides
Additional contact information
Mario R. Giraldi-Díaz: Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Veracruzana, Circuito Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán s/n. Zona Universitaria, C.P. 91040, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico
Lorena De Medina-Salas: Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Veracruzana, Circuito Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán s/n. Zona Universitaria, C.P. 91040, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico
Eduardo Castillo-González: Facultad de Ingeniería Civil, Universidad Veracruzana, Circuito Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán s/n. Zona Universitaria, C.P. 91040, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico
Max De la Cruz-Benavides: Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Veracruzana, Circuito Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán s/n. Zona Universitaria, C.P. 91040, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 5, 1-18

Abstract: The energy market is diversifying, allowing for the development of biofuels that seek to reduce environmental impact and be energetically competitive with conventional fuels. One of the aforementioned biofuels is the biodiesel that is produced from the oil extracted from the seeds of Jatropha curcas L. This research uses life cycle analysis (LCA) tool to analyze the following environmental impacts associated with its production: energy, water footprint, carbon footprint, mineral resource depletion, fossil resource depletion, terrestrial ecotoxicity, and human toxicity. The following stages were evaluated: (i) cultivation, (ii) the extraction of oil, and (iii) the biodiesel manufacturing process. The results showed that the overall process has an accumulated energy demand of 37.9 MJ/kg biodiesel, and generates 2.16 kg CO 2 eq. of greenhouse gases (GHG) per kg of biofuel. The cultivation stage had the greatest contribution towards its energy and carbon footprints, taking up 45% and 60%, respectively. However, considering the energy valorization of the coproducts that are generated in the agricultural and extraction stages for self-consumption into the product system, both categories of impact mentioned above were reduced by 35% and 41%, respectively.

Keywords: Jatropha curcas L.; LCA; biodiesel; environmental impact (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/5/1451/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/5/1451/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:5:p:1451-:d:144943

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().