TY - GEN
T1 - Life Cycle Assessment of Soybean Biodiesel Production in South Africa
T2 - 5th International Renewable and Sustainable Energy Conference, IRSEC 2017
AU - Pradhan, Anup
AU - Mbohwa, Charles
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 IEEE.
PY - 2018/9/28
Y1 - 2018/9/28
N2 - South Africa has limited oil reserves and its transportation sector mostly depends on imported petroleum products. Renewable fuels, such as biodiesel, have potential to extend and diversify South African energy supply, and help the nation to cope with energy security and emissions issues. The renewability and environmental benefits of biodiesel have been illustrated in several life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. South Africa is in initial phase of establishing large scale commercial biodiesel industries and it is sensible to measure biodiesel's life cycle performance. This study uses secondary data from literatures to develop a life cycle inventory on farming, crushing and conversion capacity of soybean and then conduct LCA of soybean biodiesel production in South Africa. The LCA results indicate that soybean biodiesel is renewable, environmentally sustainable and economically viable. Soybean biodiesel yields 125% more useful energy than the energy requires to make it, saves 31.5% GHG emissions compared to fossil diesel, and on average returns 1.39 times the cost of the energy input.
AB - South Africa has limited oil reserves and its transportation sector mostly depends on imported petroleum products. Renewable fuels, such as biodiesel, have potential to extend and diversify South African energy supply, and help the nation to cope with energy security and emissions issues. The renewability and environmental benefits of biodiesel have been illustrated in several life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. South Africa is in initial phase of establishing large scale commercial biodiesel industries and it is sensible to measure biodiesel's life cycle performance. This study uses secondary data from literatures to develop a life cycle inventory on farming, crushing and conversion capacity of soybean and then conduct LCA of soybean biodiesel production in South Africa. The LCA results indicate that soybean biodiesel is renewable, environmentally sustainable and economically viable. Soybean biodiesel yields 125% more useful energy than the energy requires to make it, saves 31.5% GHG emissions compared to fossil diesel, and on average returns 1.39 times the cost of the energy input.
KW - South Africa
KW - fossil energy ratio (FER)
KW - greenhouse gas (GHG)
KW - life cycle assessment (LCA)
KW - soybean biodiesel
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85055888373&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/IRSEC.2017.8477393
DO - 10.1109/IRSEC.2017.8477393
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85055888373
T3 - Proceedings of 2017 International Renewable and Sustainable Energy Conference, IRSEC 2017
BT - Proceedings of 2017 International Renewable and Sustainable Energy Conference, IRSEC 2017
A2 - Zaz, Youssef
A2 - Essaaidi, Mohamed
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Y2 - 4 December 2017 through 7 December 2017
ER -
