Energy cost of rapeseed-based biodiesel as alternative energy in China

As a substitute for diesel and considered a renewable energy, rapeseed-based biodiesel has attracted increasing attention in China. The present work to estimate energy cost of rapeseed-based biodiesel in China is based on embodied energy intensities for various inputs out of a recent extended input–output analysis for Chinese economy, and the accounted life-cycle process of biodiesel production includes four main stages as agricultural crop production, transportation, industrial conversion characterized by alkali-catalyzed transesterification and wastewater treatment. Due to the low rapeseed yield and intensive chemical fertilizer use in China, the overall energy cost of rapeseed-based biodiesel is estimated at 1.1 times of its biodiesel energy output, corresponding to a negative energy return, with essential policy-making implications, in contrast to the positive ones usually reported in previous researches.

[1]  Xi Ji,et al.  Exergetic evaluation of corn-ethanol production in China , 2009 .

[2]  P. Janulis,et al.  Reduction of energy consumption in biodiesel fuel life cycle , 2004 .

[3]  Geociênicias.  Encyclopedia of Earth , 2013 .

[4]  Sven Bernesson,et al.  A limited LCA comparing large- and small-scale production of rape methyl ester (RME) under Swedish conditions , 2004 .

[5]  John Sheehan,et al.  Life Cycle Inventory of Biodiesel and Petroleum Diesel for Use in an Urban Bus , 1998 .

[6]  M. Dubé,et al.  Biodiesel production from waste cooking oil: 1. Process design and technological assessment. , 2003, Bioresource technology.

[7]  Peter D. Blair,et al.  Input-Output Analysis , 2021 .

[8]  Zhang Chao-xian.  The Review of the Registration and Application of Pesticide of Canola in China , 2008 .

[9]  J. Munksgaard,et al.  Energy and CO2 life-cycle analyses of wind turbines—review and applications , 2002 .

[10]  W. Leontief.  Environmental Repercussions and the Economic Structure: An Input-Output Approach , 1970 .

[11]  中国金融学会.  Almanac of China's finance and banking , 1996 .

[12]  P. Piumsomboon,et al.  LCA studies comparing biodiesel synthesized by conventional and supercritical methanol methods , 2009 .

[13]  I. Bodík,et al.  Biodiesel waste as source of organic carbon for municipal WWTP denitrification. , 2009, Bioresource technology.

[14]  Yang Fan,et al.  Present status of China's fertilizer industry and analysis on market demand of fertilizer , 2004 .

[15]  Tan Piqiang,et al.  Life cycle energy, environment and economic assessment of soybean-based biodiesel as an alternative automotive fuel in China , 2008 .

[16]  G. Venturi,et al.  Analysis of energy comparison for crops in European agricultural systems , 2003 .

[17]  Robert Costanza,et al.  Embodied energy and economic value in the United States economy: 1963, 1967 and 1972 , 1984 .

[18]  Clark W. Bullard,et al.  Net energy analysis : handbook for combining process and input-output analysis , 1976 .

[19]  R. Costanza,et al.  Embodied energy and economic valuation. , 1980, Science.

[20]  Qing Yang,et al.  Nonrenewable energy cost of corn-ethanol in China. , 2012 .

[21]  H. von Blottnitz,et al.  A life-cycle comparison between inorganic and biological catalysis for the production of biodiesel , 2008 .

[22]  Chantaraporn Phalakornkule,et al.  Biodiesel production in a small community: Case study in Thailand , 2009 .

[23]  John Sheehan,et al.  Life cycle inventory of biodiesel and petroleum diesel for use in an urban bus. Final report , 1998 .

[24]  Filiz Karaosmanoǧlu,et al.  Investigation of the Refining Step of Biodiesel Production , 1996 .

[25]  J. V. Gerpen,et al.  Biodiesel processing and production , 2005 .