Life cycle assessment of the transesterification double step process for biodiesel production from refined soybean oil in Brazil.

Biodiesel has been attracting considerable attention as being a renewable, biodegradable, and nontoxic fuel that can contribute to the solution of some energy issues as it presents potential to help mitigate climate change. The Life Cycle Assessment of biodiesel from soybean oil (transesterification double step process) was carried out herein. A pilot plant was considered, designed to produce 72 L of biodiesel in daily continuous flow, throughout a lifetime of 15 years (8000 annual hours). The materials and equipment utilized in the construction of the plant were considered as well as the energy and substances required for the production of biodiesel. Environmental impact assessment method IPCC 2013 GWP 100a was utilized within the SimaPro software to express the final result in kg CO2-equivalent. The results quantified the CO2 emissions associated with biodiesel production throughout the lifetime of the production plant (15 years), resulting in a total value of 1,441,426.05 kg CO2-eq. (96,095.07 kg CO2-eq. per year), which was equivalent to 4.01 kg CO2-eq. per liter of biodiesel produced. Decrease of environmental loads associated with the production of biodiesel could include improvements on the handling of biomass agriculture and on the technology production of biodiesel.