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Assessment of biodiesel energy sustainability using the exergy return on investment concept

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  • Font de Mora, Emilio
  • Torres, César
  • Valero, Antonio

Abstract

Biofuels are part of the current energy mix and their contribution will increase in the years to come. However, policymakers and NGO have concerns regarding their sustainability. An adequate sustainability indicator is the energy return on investment (EROI), which evaluates the ratio of fossil energy consumption during their production. This paper applies the Exergy Cost Theory to different biodiesel production pathways, from crop cultivation to the production plant, in order to check if this principle is achieved using exergy instead of energy. For this purpose, it introduces a new sustainability indicator, called ExROI, defined as the ratio between the exergy of a particular resource and the amount of exergy required to obtain it. In other words, using exergy terms it tries to answer to the question: How much biodiesel would be needed to produce 1 kg of biodiesel? The paper demonstrates that the usual biodiesel production pathways are sustainable in this sense, although measures must be taken to decrease the rate of non-renewable energy consumption in the process, in order to make them economically competitive too.

Suggested Citation

  • Font de Mora, Emilio & Torres, César & Valero, Antonio, 2012. "Assessment of biodiesel energy sustainability using the exergy return on investment concept," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 474-480.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:45:y:2012:i:1:p:474-480
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2012.02.072
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    1. Whiting, Kai & Carmona, Luis Gabriel & Sousa, Tânia, 2017. "A review of the use of exergy to evaluate the sustainability of fossil fuels and non-fuel mineral depletion," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 202-211.
    2. Kai Whiting & Luis Gabriel Carmona & Angeles Carrasco & Tânia Sousa, 2017. "Exergy Replacement Cost of Fossil Fuels: Closing the Carbon Cycle," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-21, July.
    3. Roman Trötschel & Marie van Treek & Caroline Heydenbluth & Kai Zhang & Johann M. Majer, 2022. "From Claiming to Creating Value: The Psychology of Negotiations on Common Resource Dilemmas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-26, April.
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    5. Emilio Font de Mora & César Torres & Antonio Valero, 2015. "Thermoeconomic Analysis of Biodiesel Production from Used Cooking Oils," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-15, May.
    6. Colombo, Emanuela & Rocco, Matteo V. & Toro, Claudia & Sciubba, Enrico, 2015. "An exergy-based approach to the joint economic and environmental impact assessment of possible photovoltaic scenarios: A case study at a regional level in Italy," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 318(C), pages 64-74.
    7. Torres, César & Valero, Antonio & Valero, Alicia, 2013. "Exergoecology as a tool for ecological modelling. The case of the US food production chain," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 255(C), pages 21-28.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. Prestipino, Mauro & Salmeri, Fabio & Cucinotta, Filippo & Galvagno, Antonio, 2021. "Thermodynamic and environmental sustainability analysis of electricity production from an integrated cogeneration system based on residual biomass: A life cycle approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    11. Huysveld, Sophie & De Meester, Steven & Van linden, Veerle & Muylle, Hilde & Peiren, Nico & Lauwers, Ludwig & Dewulf, Jo, 2015. "Cumulative Overall Resource Efficiency Assessment (COREA) for comparing bio-based products with their fossil-derived counterparts," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 113-127.
    12. Liu, Jian & Zuo, Jian & Sun, Zhiyu & Zillante, George & Chen, Xianming, 2013. "Sustainability in hydropower development—A case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 230-237.
    13. Rocco, Matteo V. & Di Lucchio, Alberto & Colombo, Emanuela, 2017. "Exergy Life Cycle Assessment of electricity production from Waste-to-Energy technology: A Hybrid Input-Output approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 832-844.
    14. Anuar, Mohd Razealy & Abdullah, Ahmad Zuhairi, 2016. "Challenges in biodiesel industry with regards to feedstock, environmental, social and sustainability issues: A critical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 208-223.
    15. Sun, Dayu & Gao, Lijing & Wei, Ruiping & Pan, Xiaomei & Xiao, Guomin, 2023. "Mechanical vapor recompression coupling organic rankine cycle process for purification of crude biodiesel obtained by solid base-catalyzed transesterification," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    16. Trivedi, Parthsarathi & Olcay, Hakan & Staples, Mark D. & Withers, Mitch R. & Malina, Robert & Barrett, Steven R.H., 2015. "Energy return on investment for alternative jet fuels," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 167-174.
    17. Hu, Yan & Hall, Charles A.S. & Wang, Jianliang & Feng, Lianyong & Poisson, Alexandre, 2013. "Energy Return on Investment (EROI) of China's conventional fossil fuels: Historical and future trends," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 352-364.
    18. Liang, Xuezheng, 2013. "Synthesis of biodiesel from waste oil under mild conditions using novel acidic ionic liquid immobilization on poly divinylbenzene," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 103-108.

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