Biodiesel Production and Life Cycle Assessment: Status and Prospects

Biodiesel synthesis, particularly through transesterification, is a mature technology in constant evolution and update. These innovative changes should be validated from different points of view: economic, social, and, especially, environmental perspectives. In this sense, life cycle assessment (LCA) is the perfect procedure to verify the sustainability of these advances. This brief review covered the present status and future prospects of life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to biodiesel production. For this purpose, the current energy scenario, along with the foundations of biodiesel production and LCA, has been explained, including current research about the specific application of LCA to biodiesel from various perspectives. As a result, LCA was proven to be a versatile tool that can be easily adapted to biodiesel production, which includes continuous innovative works that should be validated from an environmental perspective. However, the counterpart is the heterogeneity found in LCA studies in general, especially concerning functional units (from 1 MJ to 1 t of biodiesel, for instance) and boundary system selection, mainly due to the wide range of possibilities in biodiesel processing. This fact makes the comparison between works (and general recommendations) difficult, requiring additional research. Nevertheless, further studies will cover the existing gaps in LCA, contributing to completing the outlook on its application to biodiesel. Nevertheless, biodiesel production, compared to diesel, normally presents better environmental impacts in categories like global warming and ozone depletion potential.