Life Cycle Inventory of Soy Based Biodiesel
In 1998, the US Department of Energy and the US Department of Agriculture did a joint study on the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) of Biodiesel and Petroleum Diesel for Use in an Urban Bus. The study took into account all known measurable factors to determine the overall environmental impact of each product. The study LCI of soy based BD included the impact of agriculture, transportation to production facilities, processing, distribution, and tailpipe emissions. The LCI of petroleum diesel included mining, transportation to refineries, refining, distribution, and tailpipe emissions. The LCI study concluded that the total impact of B100 is 95% less than that of petroleum based diesel.
US Department of Energy Aquatic Species Program
The most relevant previous studies were done in the US DOE Aquatic Species Program (ASP). The program was started in 1978 and concluded in 1996. During its years of operation, the ASP studied production BD methods from algae species with high lipid content, utilizing waste CO2 from coal fired power plants. During the studies, advances were made in manipulating the metabolism of various algae species to increase the lipid content, as well as production methods to increase output.
By investigating the physiology and biochemistry of upwards of 3000 algae species, the ASP was able to determine the necessary conditions to maximize the lipid content of algae, thus maximizing the production of BD. At the conclusion, the ASP had narrowed the list to 300 species that had the greatest potential for high yield BD production. While the conclusion was that algae based BD production was technically feasible, the ASP concluded that the production costs were too high to be viable at 1996 oil prices.
