Life cycle assessment biofuel production

Zah, R., Boni, H., Gauch, M., Hischier, R., Lehmann, M. and Wager, P. (2007) Life Cycle Assessment of Energy Products Environmental Assessment of Biofuels, EMPA, Switzerland. 

Post-processing of cellulosic wastes to biofuels aims to produce useful environmentally benign products out of a potentially hazardous material. To ensure environmental consistency, however, life cycle assessment is essential, to evaluate the environmental impact of post-processing and its end products. 

Sanz Requena, J. R, Guimaraes, A. C., Quiros Alpera, S., Relea Gangas, E., Hernandez-Navarro, S., Navas Gracia, L. M., Martin-Gil, J., Fresneda Cuesta, H. Life cycle assessment (LCA) of the biofuel production process from sunflower oil, rapeseed oil and soybean oil. Fuel Processing Technology 92 (2011) 190-199. 

These indicators are a shortlist of the sustainability issues related to biofuels production and not all of them can be estimated with current life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies. For instance, none of the LCA studies discussed in the Uterature included ILUC (indirect land-use change that may displace existing agricultural activity) in the analysis (Humalisto, 2015). This specific problem remains a major unsolved factor for the assessment of the carbon footprint of biofuels as it is tightly Unked to deforestation, which endangers the local habitats and biodiversity. 

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