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A Review of Environmental Life Cycle Assessments of Liquid Transportation Biofuels in the Pan American Region

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Abstract

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) has been applied to many biofuel and bioenergy systems to determine potential environmental impacts, but the conclusions have varied. Different methodologies and processes for conducting LCA of biofuels make the results difficult to compare, in-turn making it difficult to make the best possible and informed decision. Of particular importance are the wide variability in country-specific conditions, modeling assumptions, data quality, chosen impact categories and indicators, scale of production, system boundaries, and co-product allocation. This study has a double purpose: conducting a critical evaluation comparing environmental LCA of biofuels from several conversion pathways and in several countries in the Pan American region using both qualitative and quantitative analyses, and making recommendations for harmonization with respect to biofuel LCA study features, such as study assumptions, inventory data, impact indicators, and reporting practices. The environmental management implications are discussed within the context of different national and international regulatory environments using a case study. The results from this study highlight LCA methodology choices that cause high variability in results and limit comparability among different studies, even among the same biofuel pathway, and recommendations are provided for improvement.

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Abbreviations

BD:

Biodiesel

HRJ:

Hydro-renewable jet fuel

DAYCENT:

Daily Century

dLUC:

Direct land-use change

EBAMM:

ERG Biofuel Analysis Meta-Model

EPA:

Environmental Protection Agency

EtOH:

Ethanol

EU-RED:

European Union-Renewable Energy Directive

GHG:

Greenhouse gases

GREET:

Greenhouse gases, regulated emissions, and energy use in transportation

GWP:

Global warming potential

IPCC:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

ISCC:

International Sustainability & Carbon Certification

LCA:

Life-cycle assessment

LCI:

Life-cycle inventory

LCIA:

Life-cycle impact assessment

RSB:

Roundtable on sustainable biomaterials

US-RFS:

United States-Renewable Fuel Standard

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Acknowledgments

This material is based upon work supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation Grant CBET-1140152“RCN-SEES: A Research Coordination Network on Pan American Biofuels and Bioenergy Sustainability.” We would like to thank the U.S. National Science Foundation for partial support in writing this paper under Award Number 1105039, “OISE-PIRE Sustainability, Ecosystem Services, and Bioenergy Development Across the Americas.” The article benefited greatly from the comments of three anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA

    David R. Shonnard & Bethany Klemetsrud

  2. Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, Mexico

    Julio Sacramento-Rivero & Freddy Navarro-Pineda

  3. National Agricultural Technology Institute, INTA, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Jorge Hilbert

  4. Sustainable Futures Institute, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA

    David R. Shonnard & Robert Handler

  5. CADIS - Center for LCA and Sustainable Design, Mexico City, Mexico

    Nydia Suppen

  6. University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Richard P. Donovan

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  1. David R. Shonnard
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Correspondence to David R. Shonnard.

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Shonnard, D.R., Klemetsrud, B., Sacramento-Rivero, J. et al. A Review of Environmental Life Cycle Assessments of Liquid Transportation Biofuels in the Pan American Region. Environmental Management 56, 1356–1376 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-015-0543-8

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