Abstract
Thailand has been implementing its Alternative Energy Development Plan aiming to replace 20–25% of fossil fuels with locally produced biofuels by 2036. The partial substitution of fossil diesel with fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) derived from palm oil is one of the major options but blending beyond 20% of FAME is a concern for use in conventional diesel engines. This problem has led to the consideration of other bio-based diesels also derived from palm oil; namely, partially hydrogenated fatty acid methyl ester (H-FAME) and bio-hydrogenated diesel (BHD). This study performed a comparative life cycle assessment of various bio-based diesels using the ReCiPe life cycle impact assessment method. The results showed that in comparison to fossil diesel, bio-based diesels have superior performance for global warming and fossil resource scarcity, but an inferior performance for eutrophication, terrestrial acidification, human toxicity, and land use. Considering the collective environmental damages, BHD performed the worst for human health, and all the bio-based diesels showed poor performance for ecosystem quality, while diesel showed poor performance for resource availability. Among the bio-based diesel products, BHD has higher environmental burdens than FAME and H-FAME. Improvements have been suggested to enhance the environmental performance of the bio-based diesels.
Highlights
Thailand’s energy demand has been increasing continuously due to population and economic growth
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an environmental impact assessment based on a systems approach
Fresh fruit bunch (FFB) production refers to the agriculture and harvesting systems including seeding, oil palm nursery, oil palm cultivation, and harvesting
Summary
Thailand’s energy demand has been increasing continuously due to population and economic growth. About 500 million barrels of crude oil was required to serve the national demand in 2019 [1]. More than 80% of this crude oil was imported from different countries, namely United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Russia, Australia, Qatar, and others. Crude oil was the top import product in Thailand costing about 24 billion euros in 2018 [2]. Use of crude oil in the country is about 1.3 million barrels per day and around 0.42 million barrels of diesel per day is used in the country. The crude oil demand increased by about 30% from the year 2009 to 2019 [1] Transportation is one of the major sectors using diesel and contributes a significant share of the national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In 2018, GHG emission from the transport sector was about 68 million tons CO2-eq sharing 26% of total GHG emissions in the country [3,4,5]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
