Journal of Energy Bioscience 2025, Vol.16, No.2, 75-84 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/jeb 80 6.2 Carbon footprint analysis of rapeseed-based biodiesel Carbon footprint is an important reference for evaluating how environmentally friendly rapeseed biodiesel is. According to life cycle assessment (LCA), this biodiesel emits much less carbon during production and use than traditional fossil fuels. For a car that runs 1 000 kilometers, if it uses biodiesel, it will emit about 57 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent, while if it uses ordinary diesel, the emissions can reach 214 kilograms (Malça et al., 2014). In addition, replacing some traditional materials can also help. For example, using biofumigants instead of chemical ones can save 134 grams of carbon emissions per megajoule of biodiesel (Tanner et al., 2023). 6.3 Strategies for minimizing waste and enhancing circularity To make the rapeseed oil production process more environmentally friendly, the key is to reduce waste and strengthen recycling. Byproducts of the production process can be used: the oil cake after oil extraction can be used to feed animals or used as a biofumigant, making the entire bioenergy chain more sustainable (Lovasz et al., 2023). Tanner et al. (2023) developed a new method in which they directly used whole rapeseed to produce biodiesel without using catalysts, too much water or solvents. This method is simpler and emits fewer pollutants. Another effective strategy is to use conservation agriculture to grow different crops in an area and reduce arable land (Yang et al., 2021) (Figure 3). Figure 3 System boundary for the production of biodiesel from rapeseed (Adopted from Yang et al., 2021) Image caption: The foreground is the region with agricultural crop cultivation. The geospatial maps of dominant crop distribution, regional climatic conditions and soil types are used to characterize the site-specific condition of rapeseed cultivation areas. The left side shows inputs for rapeseed cultivation, transportation to biodiesel plants and transesterification processing. The middle segment illustrates the major life cycle process of rapeseed-based biodiesel production, and the corresponding environmental impacts are shown on the right (Adopted from Yang et al., 2021)
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