Sorawit Siangjaeo . Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emission from Biodiesel Production including land-use change aspects. Master's Degree(Energy Technology). King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi. KMUTT Library. : King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, 2010.
Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emission from Biodiesel Production including land-use change aspects
Abstract:
This study presents the life cycle greenhouse gas balance from biodiesel production in
Thailand, including the evaluation ofthe effects of land-use change, which result from
biodiesel promotion policies. Thailand is now cultivating oil palm in different parts of the
country which leads to different balances in biodiesel life cycle due to different farming
practices, variable yields, and transportation needs. To evaluate the GHG balance from three
chosen land use change scenarios: rubber plantation to oil palm plantation in Krabi, cassava
plantation to oil palm plantation in Chonburi, and abandoned land to oil palm plantation in
Pathumthani, Life Cycle Assessment was used as the tool. The study was focused upon
showing the GHG balance from biodiesel production, since the life cycle in this study starts
from oil palm plantation and ends at biodiesel production plants. Transportation of fresh fruit
bunch (FFB) and crude palm oil (CPO) were also included. The functional unit is 1 million
liters of biodiesel production per day. The life cycle GHG balance from the study shows that,
for l functional unit, biodiesel produced from Krabi case totaled -711.36 Mg CO2-eq/day, and
from Chonburi case and Pathumthani case -750.64 Mg CO2-eq/day and -604.03 Mg CO2eq/
day, respectively. Pathumthani case showed the least minus GHG balance, even with the
least fertilization applied, partly because the plantation is far from the mill and biodieseI plant,
so more GHG was emitted from the transportation section while Chonburi case showed the
highest minus GHG balance due to the fact that it would require more land to grow oil palm to
meet functional unit, resulting in more soil carbon being sequestered. However, the land use
change scenarios chosen for this study all show negative GHG balances which means the
conversions of land cover, as assumed for this study, help reducing GHG in the atmosphere.
The estimation of soil carbon change from other land use to oil palm plantation is resulted in
an increase in soil carbon ranging from 1.24 - 1.90 Mg C per hectare per year, which is equal
to about 4.55 - 6.97 Mg CO2-eq per hectare per year of CO2 removal.
King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi. KMUTT Library