76
7.2 Global Land Availability for Biofuels
Recent trends of arable land and forest area in Indonesia and Brazil are shown in
Fig. 7.1. Arable land in Indonesia is as a whole increasing, after a small decline in
the early 1990s. Arable land in Brazil is also increasing; the increased area during
1990–2008 is more than 10 M ha. In contrast, forest area in both countries is
decreasing drastically. 23 M ha forest area (12% of the surface area) in Indonesia
and 51 M ha forest area (6% of the surface area) in Brazil have been disappeared
during the same period.
These trends illustrate that land availability for biofuels is limited. Global land
use for biofuels is estimated at around 13.8 M ha (the sum of the USA, EU, Brazil,
and China), which is about 1% of the world cropland (1500 M ha) (RenewableFuels- Agency 2008). Large additional land is required for achieving current policy
targets of biofuels, even if larger yield increase is possible. Global biofuel targets to
2020 are estimated to require between 56 and 166 M ha (Renewable-Fuels-Agency
2008), which are 1.5 and 4.4 times larger than the surface area of Japan.
7.3 Land Use Change Impacts in LCA
The global land use change discussed so far necessitates the introduction of land use
impact assessment into LCA. In this section, after demonstrating the importance of
land use change in LCA using the examples of plant oils, the framework of land use
impact assessment within LCA is presented.
7.3.1 Importance of Land Use Change in LCA: An Expository
Analysis of Plant Oils
The purpose of this expository study is to present a comparative LCA of plant oils
at oil mills. Plant oils under investigation are castor oil (India), crude coconut oil
(Philippines), jatropha oil (India), olive oil (Cyprus), palm kernel oil (Malaysia),
palm oil (Malaysia), palm oil, no clear-cutting (Malaysia), rape oil (Switzerland),
rape oil (Europe), rape oil, organic (Europe), soybean oil (Europe), soybean oil
(Brazil), and soybean oil (USA).
The system boundaries for plant oil production include agricultural production
such as the production of palm fruit bunches and milling processes. Since the
former includes production processes of agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and
pesticides, the boundaries are termed “cradle to gate.” The functional unit is 1 kg of
oils. Attributional LCA, which analyzes a single full life cycle, was applied to illustrate typical practices (Reinhard and Zah 2009; Schmidt 2010).
K. Hayashi
7.2 Global Land Availability for Biofuels
Recent trends of arable land and forest area in Indonesia and Brazil are shown in
Fig. 7.1. Arable land in Indonesia is as a whole increasing, after a small decline in
the early 1990s. Arable land in Brazil is also increasing; the increased area during
1990–2008 is more than 10 M ha. In contrast, forest area in both countries is
decreasing drastically. 23 M ha forest area (12% of the surface area) in Indonesia
and 51 M ha forest area (6% of the surface area) in Brazil have been disappeared
during the same period.
These trends illustrate that land availability for biofuels is limited. Global land
use for biofuels is estimated at around 13.8 M ha (the sum of the USA, EU, Brazil,
and China), which is about 1% of the world cropland (1500 M ha) (RenewableFuels- Agency 2008). Large additional land is required for achieving current policy
targets of biofuels, even if larger yield increase is possible. Global biofuel targets to
2020 are estimated to require between 56 and 166 M ha (Renewable-Fuels-Agency
2008), which are 1.5 and 4.4 times larger than the surface area of Japan.
7.3 Land Use Change Impacts in LCA
The global land use change discussed so far necessitates the introduction of land use
impact assessment into LCA. In this section, after demonstrating the importance of
land use change in LCA using the examples of plant oils, the framework of land use
impact assessment within LCA is presented.
7.3.1 Importance of Land Use Change in LCA: An Expository
Analysis of Plant Oils
The purpose of this expository study is to present a comparative LCA of plant oils
at oil mills. Plant oils under investigation are castor oil (India), crude coconut oil
(Philippines), jatropha oil (India), olive oil (Cyprus), palm kernel oil (Malaysia),
palm oil (Malaysia), palm oil, no clear-cutting (Malaysia), rape oil (Switzerland),
rape oil (Europe), rape oil, organic (Europe), soybean oil (Europe), soybean oil
(Brazil), and soybean oil (USA).
The system boundaries for plant oil production include agricultural production
such as the production of palm fruit bunches and milling processes. Since the
former includes production processes of agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and
pesticides, the boundaries are termed “cradle to gate.” The functional unit is 1 kg of
oils. Attributional LCA, which analyzes a single full life cycle, was applied to illustrate typical practices (Reinhard and Zah 2009; Schmidt 2010).
K. Hayashi