Abstract
Renewable energies are cleaner forms of energy, and their use, has intensified in recent decades. Thus, this work presents a proposal for reducing the emissions, fuel cost, and respiratory disease hospitalizations using environmental cost accounting principles to produce biodiesel production from waste frying oil. In our methodology, we conducted surveys, and collected waste cooking oil samples from local households and restaurants in São Paulo city, Brazil. Then, we produced biodiesel using these samples. Data on air pollutants were collected and correlated with the number of hospitalizations for respiratory diseases and their costs. Our results indicate that 330,000 respiratory disease hospitalizations were recorded in São Paulo city between 2009 and 2018, and the total cost for the Brazilian government reached US $117 million. Improving the city air quality by switching from fossil fuels to biodiesel could reduce the annual number of hospitalizations to 9880 and cost US $3.518 million, because the amount of pollutants emitted from burning fossil fuels was positively correlated with the number of respiratory disease hospitalizations and their costs. Moreover, the emission rates of particulate matter with particles less than 10 and 2.5 µm in diameter exceeded the World Health Organization limits throughout the study period. Using the survey data, we estimated that the average monthly quantity of waste cooking oil was 9794.6 m3, which could generate 9191.2 m3 of biodiesel and produce 239,713 t CO2 of carbon credits. Environmental cost accounting revealed that it would be possible to achieve an annual profit of approximately US $300 million from the sale of excess biodiesel, carbon credits, and glycerine, and fuel acquisition savings which could improve the image of São Paulo city and quality of life of its residents. Thus, we present this as a way to reduce cost and hospitalizations, and increase the number of available hospital beds for other diseases, such as COVID-19.
Highlights
A clean technology practice is presented in this work, which contributes to sustainable development by using a renewable fuel that is a cleaner technology than fossil fuels, as it reduces the number of polluting gases in the atmosphere, improving the health and quality of life of citizens
When analyzing the database of airborne pollutant gases in São Paulo city, it was noted that the emission levels of PM10, PM2.5, and NO2 were higher than the WHOestablished values throughout the study period, indicating that the air quality in São Paulo city was poor throughout the study period
Approximately 330,000 respiratory disease hospitalizations were recorded in São Paulo city, which translated into the total cost of US $117 million for the Brazilian government, and positively correlated with the PM10, PM2.5, SO2, carbon monoxide (CO), and NO2 pollutant gaseous emissions
Summary
1.1. Advantages and Disadvantages of Diesel OilLicensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).A clean technology practice is presented in this work, which contributes to sustainable development by using a renewable fuel that is a cleaner technology than fossil fuels, as it reduces the number of polluting gases in the atmosphere, improving the health and quality of life of citizens. Among the main barriers, the proof of the economic or environmental feasibility of the proposals is cited, which is easily solved using the theory of environmental cost accounting [1,2,3]. The use of renewable energy sources is one of the cleanest ways the energy sector uses to contribute to sustainable development. Thus, the switch from
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