IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eep/report/rr2010061.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Producing Biodiesel from Jatropha curcas L. in Yunnan, China: Lifecycle Environmental, Economic and Energy Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Zanxin Wang

    (Institute of Population, Resource and Environmental Economics, Yunnan University)

  • Yin Lu

    (Institute of Population, Resource and Environmental Economics, Yunnan University)

  • Siguang Li

    (Institute of Population, Resource and Environmental Economics, Yunnan University)

Abstract

As in many countries, policy makers in China see biofuel as a potentially important part of the move to a sustainable, post-oil economy. To contribute to this important energy debate, this study looks at the economic and environmental performance of one potential bio-fuel crop: Jatropha curcas L (JCL). The study shows that, given current technology levels and management practices, the production of JCL biodiesel is not economically feasible. However, it also shows that JCL biodiesel has excellent performance from both an environmental and energy production point of view. Moreover, it is clear that, if JCL seed yields can be improved, then biodiesel made from the plant would be economically feasible to produce. With this in mind, the report outlines a number of initiatives that could be pursued to make JCL biodiesel an effective part of China's overall energy policy. These include providing grants and other funding to optimise the JCL biodiesel production process.

Suggested Citation

  • Zanxin Wang & Yin Lu & Siguang Li, 2010. "Producing Biodiesel from Jatropha curcas L. in Yunnan, China: Lifecycle Environmental, Economic and Energy Performance," EEPSEA Research Report rr2010061, Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA), revised Jun 2010.
    • Handle: RePEc:eep:report:rr2010061
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.eepsea.org/pub/rr/12759619121Wang_Zanxin_2009-RR12.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2010
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yáñez Angarita, Edgar Eduardo & Silva Lora, Electo Eduardo & da Costa, Rosélis Ester & Torres, Ednildo Andrade, 2009. "The energy balance in the Palm Oil-Derived Methyl Ester (PME) life cycle for the cases in Brazil and Colombia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2905-2913.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zanxin Wang & Wei Wei & Margaret Calderon & Xianchun Liao, 2019. "Impacts of biofuel policy on the regional economy and carbon emission reduction in Yunnan, China," Energy & Environment, , vol. 30(5), pages 930-948, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Iriarte, Alfredo & Rieradevall, Joan & Gabarrell, Xavier, 2012. "Transition towards a more environmentally sustainable biodiesel in South America: The case of Chile," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 263-273.
    2. Castanheira, Érica Geraldes & Acevedo, Helmer & Freire, Fausto, 2014. "Greenhouse gas intensity of palm oil produced in Colombia addressing alternative land use change and fertilization scenarios," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 958-967.
    3. Polprasert, Chongchin & Patthanaissaranukool, Withida & Englande, Andrew J., 2015. "A choice between RBD (refined, bleached, and deodorized) palm olein and palm methyl ester productions from carbon movement categorization," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 610-620.
    4. Wiraditma Prananta & Ida Kubiszewski, 2021. "Assessment of Indonesia’s Future Renewable Energy Plan: A Meta-Analysis of Biofuel Energy Return on Investment (EROI)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-15, May.
    5. Nogueira, Luiz A.H., 2011. "Does biodiesel make sense?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 3659-3666.
    6. Cherubini, Francesco & Strømman, Anders Hammer & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2011. "Influence of allocation methods on the environmental performance of biorefinery products—A case study," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 55(11), pages 1070-1077.
    7. César, Aldara da Silva & Batalha, Mário Otávio & Zopelari, André Luiz Miranda Silva, 2013. "Oil palm biodiesel: Brazil's main challenges," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 485-491.
    8. Renó, Maria Luiza Grillo & Lora, Electo Eduardo Silva & Palacio, José Carlos Escobar & Venturini, Osvaldo José & Buchgeister, Jens & Almazan, Oscar, 2011. "A LCA (life cycle assessment) of the methanol production from sugarcane bagasse," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 3716-3726.
    9. Rodrigues, Thiago Oliveira & Caldeira-Pires, Armando & Luz, Sandra & Frate, Claudio Albuquerque, 2014. "GHG balance of crude palm oil for biodiesel production in the northern region of Brazil," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 516-521.
    10. Gholami, Ali & Hajinezhad, Ahmad & Pourfayaz, Fathollah & Ahmadi, Mohammad Hossein, 2018. "The effect of hydrodynamic and ultrasonic cavitation on biodiesel production: An exergy analysis approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 478-489.
    11. Zhang, Xiaolei & Yan, Song & Tyagi, Rajeshwar D. & Surampalli, Rao Y., 2013. "Energy balance and greenhouse gas emissions of biodiesel production from oil derived from wastewater and wastewater sludge," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 392-403.
    12. van Eijck, Janske & Batidzirai, Bothwell & Faaij, André, 2014. "Current and future economic performance of first and second generation biofuels in developing countries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 115-141.
    13. Carneiro, Maria Luisa N.M. & Pradelle, Florian & Braga, Sergio L. & Gomes, Marcos Sebastião P. & Martins, Ana Rosa F.A. & Turkovics, Franck & Pradelle, Renata N.C., 2017. "Potential of biofuels from algae: Comparison with fossil fuels, ethanol and biodiesel in Europe and Brazil through life cycle assessment (LCA)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 632-653.
    14. Flórez-Orrego, Daniel & da Silva, Julio A.M. & Velásquez, Héctor & de Oliveira, Silvio, 2015. "Renewable and non-renewable exergy costs and CO2 emissions in the production of fuels for Brazilian transportation sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 18-36.
    15. Achten, Wouter M.J. & Almeida, Joana & Fobelets, Vincent & Bolle, Evelien & Mathijs, Erik & Singh, Virendra P. & Tewari, Dina N. & Verchot, Louis V. & Muys, Bart, 2010. "Life cycle assessment of Jatropha biodiesel as transportation fuel in rural India," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(12), pages 3652-3660, December.
    16. César, Aldara da Silva & Batalha, Mário Otávio, 2013. "Brazilian biodiesel: The case of the palm's social projects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 165-174.
    17. Papong, Seksan & Chom-In, Tassaneewan & Noksa-nga, Soottiwan & Malakul, Pomthong, 2010. "Life cycle energy efficiency and potentials of biodiesel production from palm oil in Thailand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 226-233, January.
    18. de Souza, Simone Pereira & Pacca, Sergio & de Ávila, Márcio Turra & Borges, José Luiz B., 2010. "Greenhouse gas emissions and energy balance of palm oil biofuel," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 2552-2561.
    19. Gonzalez-Salazar, Miguel Angel & Venturini, Mauro & Poganietz, Witold-Roger & Finkenrath, Matthias & L.V. Leal, Manoel Regis, 2017. "Combining an accelerated deployment of bioenergy and land use strategies: Review and insights for a post-conflict scenario in Colombia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 159-177.
    20. Rajaeifar, Mohammad Ali & Akram, Asadolah & Ghobadian, Barat & Rafiee, Shahin & Heidari, Mohammad Davoud, 2014. "Energy-economic life cycle assessment (LCA) and greenhouse gas emissions analysis of olive oil production in Iran," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 139-149.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    biodiesel; China;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eep:report:rr2010061. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Arief Anshory yusuf (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eepsesg.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.