Sustainability assessment of ethanol and biodiesel production in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Guatemala

Abstract

This study assessed the production, land use, environmental impacts, and energy balance associated with ethanol and biodiesel production in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Guatemala. These countries are considered developing economies and produced 97% of biofuel in Latin America, achieving production of 46 billion liters in 2019. The implementation of public policies (ie. RenovaBio, LCFS frameworks) to stimulate the adoption of low-carbon fuels may encourage biofuel production. Hence, the official data for each country were used to quantify the biofuel production and land required for their production. To evaluate the environmental impacts, a cradle-to-gate attributional life cycle assessment (ALCA) was performed. The results revealed that transforming 5% of current pastures into arable land for raw materials could double biofuel production. The findings also showed that increases in raw material productivity could significantly reduce land demand, suggesting that efforts in this direction should be intensified. When ethanol and biodiesel production were compared to gasoline and diesel production, considerable reductions in global warming (up to 84%) and ozone layer depletion were observed; most importantly, the positive energy ratio (ER, 2.5–9.3 MJbioenergy/MJfossil) and net energy ratio (NER, 0.51–0.96 MJnet energy/MJbiofuel) indicated energy sustainability of biofuel production in these countries. In addition, water use and biodiversity impacts were presented based on previous studies. Finally, the impact of public policies such as the RenovaBio program, expected to incentivize farmers, biofuel producers, and policymakers to improve the biofuel supply chain, were evaluated in the context of these countries.