IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v11y2020i1d10.1038_s41467-020-14852-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measured greenhouse gas budgets challenge emission savings from palm-oil biodiesel

Author

Listed:
  • Ana Meijide

    (Bioclimatology, University of Göttingen
    University of Göttingen
    Ecology, University of Granada)

  • Cristina Rua

    (Technical University of Munich)

  • Thomas Guillaume

    (University of Göttingen
    School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Ecological Systems Laboratory (ECOS)
    Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Site Lausanne)

  • Alexander Röll

    (University of Göttingen)

  • Evelyn Hassler

    (University of Göttingen)

  • Christian Stiegler

    (Bioclimatology, University of Göttingen)

  • Aiyen Tjoa

    (Fakultas Pertanian, Universitas Tadulako)

  • Tania June

    (IPB University, Department of Geophysics and Meteorology)

  • Marife D. Corre

    (University of Göttingen)

  • Edzo Veldkamp

    (University of Göttingen
    University of Göttingen)

  • Alexander Knohl

    (Bioclimatology, University of Göttingen
    University of Göttingen)

Abstract

The potential of palm-oil biofuels to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared with fossil fuels is increasingly questioned. So far, no measurement-based GHG budgets were available, and plantation age was ignored in Life Cycle Analyses (LCA). Here, we conduct LCA based on measured CO2, CH4 and N2O fluxes in young and mature Indonesian oil palm plantations. CO2 dominates the on-site GHG budgets. The young plantation is a carbon source (1012 ± 51 gC m−2 yr−1), the mature plantation a sink (−754 ± 38 gC m−2 yr−1). LCA considering the measured fluxes shows higher GHG emissions for palm-oil biodiesel than traditional LCA assuming carbon neutrality. Plantation rotation-cycle extension and earlier-yielding varieties potentially decrease GHG emissions. Due to the high emissions associated with forest conversion to oil palm, our results indicate that only biodiesel from second rotation-cycle plantations or plantations established on degraded land has the potential for pronounced GHG emission savings.

Suggested Citation

  • Ana Meijide & Cristina Rua & Thomas Guillaume & Alexander Röll & Evelyn Hassler & Christian Stiegler & Aiyen Tjoa & Tania June & Marife D. Corre & Edzo Veldkamp & Alexander Knohl, 2020. "Measured greenhouse gas budgets challenge emission savings from palm-oil biodiesel," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-14852-6
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14852-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14852-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-020-14852-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Gasparatos, A. & Mudombi, S. & Balde, B.S. & von Maltitz, G.P. & Johnson, F.X. & Romeu-Dalmau, C. & Jumbe, C. & Ochieng, C. & Luhanga, D. & Nyambane, A. & Rossignoli, C. & Jarzebski, M.P. & Dam Lam, R, 2022. "Local food security impacts of biofuel crop production in southern Africa," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    2. Cordula Hinkes & Inken Christoph-Schulz, 2020. "No Palm Oil or Certified Sustainable Palm Oil? Heterogeneous Consumer Preferences and the Role of Information," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-26, September.
    3. Ge, Zewen & Geng, Yong & Wei, Wendong & Jiang, Mingkun & Chen, Bin & Li, Jiashuo, 2023. "Embodied carbon emissions induced by the construction of hydropower infrastructure in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    4. Najeeb Al-Amin Iddris & Greta Formaglio & Carola Paul & Volker Groß & Guantao Chen & Andres Angulo-Rubiano & Dirk Berkelmann & Fabian Brambach & Kevin F. A. Darras & Valentyna Krashevska & Anton Potap, 2023. "Mechanical weeding enhances ecosystem multifunctionality and profit in industrial oil palm," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 6(6), pages 683-695, June.
    5. Phuang, Zhen Xin & Woon, Kok Sin & Wong, Khai Jian & Liew, Peng Yen & Hanafiah, Marlia Mohd, 2021. "Unlocking the environmental hotspots of palm biodiesel upstream production in Malaysia via life cycle assessment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    6. 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.

    More about this item

    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:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-14852-6. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    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.