Land use is key in biofuels carbon footprint - study

02 October 2007 12:20  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Planting forests and using petrodiesel will reduce the continent’s carbon footprint more than producing biodiesel from rapeseed in northern Europe, said a study to be published by a US-based chemicals consultancy firm next Monday.

 

Where a crop is grown plays a significantly more important part in greenhouse emissions than what type of crop is grown due to “land carbon capacity”, according to SRI Consulting’s Carbon Footprint of Biofuels and Petrofuels report, released to ICIS news on Tuesday.

 

“On northern European land, growing a forest and burning petrodiesel is clearly the better choice,” said Mike Arne of SRIC’s greenhouse gases initiative.

 

“But if rapeseed were grown on former prairie land in the US midwest normally devoted to corn and soybeans, the clear choice becomes a tie. The footprint is about the same whether rapeseed biodiesel or petrodiesel is chosen for this area,” he added.

 

There was a huge difference for the same crop in the two areas as European forests store a significantly larger amount of carbon when compared with midwest grasslands, SRIC said.

 

The study showed the carbon footprint was reduced more by converting Malaysian rainforests into palm oil plantations for biodiesel than by burning petrodiesel but that replacing Brazilian rainforests with sugarcane for bioethanol production was not beneficial.

 

SRIC’s report compared carbon footprints, measured in kg/cardon dioxide (CO2) equivalent per 100 km driven of petrodiesel versus biodiesel made from rapeseed, soybeans, tallow and used cooking oil - known as yellow grease. 

 

It also compared gasoline against bioethanol made from sugarcane, corn (maize) and biomass stover (stalks, leaves and cobs) left over from corn harvesting.

By: Mark Watts
+44 20 8652 3214

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