You are here:
Biofuel Supply Chains: Impacts, Indicators and Sustainability Metrics(Presentation)
Citation:
SMITH, R. L. Biofuel Supply Chains: Impacts, Indicators and Sustainability Metrics(Presentation). Presented at 13th Conference on Process Integration, Modelling and Optimisation for Energy Saving and Pollution Reduction, Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC, August 28 - September 01, 2010.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform EPA
Description:
Biofuel supply chains in the United States are expected to expand considerably, in part due to the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007. This law mandates through the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard an expansion to 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels per year by 2022. This paper considers these expanding biofuel supply chains and example impacts, indicators and sustainability metrics for evaluating them. In particular, the impact category considered is reduction of greenhouse gases, the indicator studied is the amount of yield for biofuel crops, and the sustainability metric reviewed is the energy ratio. Ranges of values are found for each of these, and variability and tradeoffs are the expected results in the study of biofuel supply chains.