Vegetable oil biofuels are increasingly being used as an alternative to fossil fuels despite the growing controversy regarding their sustainability.
Vegetable oil biofuels are increasingly being used as an alternative to fossil fuels despite the growing controversy regarding their sustainability. In a new study led by the University of Göttingen, researchers investigated the effect of palm-oil biodiesel on greenhouse gases for the entire life cycle. The researchers found that using palm oil from first rotation plantations where forests had been cleared to make way for palms actually leads to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions compared to using fossil fuels. However, there is potential for carbon savings in plantations established on degraded land. In addition, emissions could be reduced by introducing longer rotation cycles or new oil palm varieties with a higher yield. The results were published in Nature Communications.
The use of vegetable oil-based biofuels has rocketed in recent years because they are considered a “greener” substitute for fossil fuels. Although their sustainability is now increasingly questioned, the demand continues to grow, and this has stimulated the ongoing expansion of oil palm cultivation across the tropics, especially in Indonesia. Greenhouse gas emissions are important because they have far-ranging environmental effects such as climate change. The European Union (EU) defined minimum greenhouse gas emission saving requirements for biofuels in its Renewable Energy Directive: the entire life cycle of palm-oil biodiesel has to show at least 60% greenhouse gas emission savings compared to fossil fuel. In this study, researchers from the German-Indonesian Collaborative Research Centre “Ecological and Socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems (EFForTS)” analysed the entire life cycle of palm-oil biodiesel. The researchers used field-based measurements of greenhouse gas fluxes during different stages of oil palm cultivation in the Jambi province in Indonesia.
Read more at University Of Göttingen
Photo Credit: Alexander Röll, University of Göttingen
