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The Environmental Impacts and Allocation Methods Used in LCA Studies of Vegetable Oil-Based Bio-diesels

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Abstract

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool to assess the environmental impacts and resources used during the life cycle of a product, i.e., from raw material acquisition, via production and use phases, to waste management. The methods of development in LCA have been strong, and the paper is aimed at providing a review of recent developments of LCA methods employed in the production of bio-diesel from various vegetable sources like Jatropha, palm, soybean, sunflower, canola and rapeseed. The essential features of LCA methods like the goal, scope definition and system boundaries have been reviewed and authors have mainly focussed on impact categories on environment and energy. The review also covers impact categories like human health, ecosystem quality and resource depletion. The interpretation of results indicates that the implication of LCA is strong in energy analysis of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and there is less GHG emission in second generation bio-diesel as compared to first generation. Some uncertainties and gaps in the application of LCA are identified and discussed. The uncertainties are mainly due to inconsistent choices across different allocation, system boundaries, time period in impact assessment and scope of the analysis. The uncertainties are dealt by tools like Monte Carlo simulations, fuzzy set theory etc.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, India

    Rajeshwari Chatterjee

  2. Department of Production Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi, India

    Vinay Sharma

  3. Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology, Patna, Bihar, India

    Samrat Mukherjee

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  1. Rajeshwari Chatterjee
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  2. Vinay Sharma
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  3. Samrat Mukherjee
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Correspondence to Rajeshwari Chatterjee.

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Chatterjee, R., Sharma, V. & Mukherjee, S. The Environmental Impacts and Allocation Methods Used in LCA Studies of Vegetable Oil-Based Bio-diesels. Waste Biomass Valor 6, 579–603 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-015-9375-2

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