80
7.4 Case Studies of Land Use Impact Assessment: Palm Oil
Production
Before making case studies of land use impacts of palm oil production, a general
overview of LCA applied to palm oil production is given.
7.4.1 Literature Review of LCA Applied to Palm Oil
After a feasibility study of LCA on crude palm oil production in Malaysia by Yusoff
and Hansen (2007), the number of papers published in scientific journals was
increased. Vijaya et al. (2008) made life cycle inventories of 12 palm oil mills in
Malaysia. Wicke et al. (2008) analyzed GHG emissions of crude palm oil and palm
fatty acid distillate production in northern Borneo (Malaysia), their transport to the
Netherlands, and their co-firing with natural gas for electricity production. They
stressed that land use change is the most decisive factor in overall GHG emissions
and that degraded land should be used for palm oil production. Lam et al. (2009)
conducted LCA of palm and jatropha methyl ester (biodiesel) and assessed land
requirement, energy balance, and CO 2 emissions and sequestration in Malaysia.
Case studies were not restricted to Malaysia. Angarita et al. (2009) analyzed the
life cycle energy balance in palm methyl ester in Brazil and Colombia. Pleanjai and
Gheewala (2009) compared the net energy balance and the net energy ratio of palm
methyl ester with those of coconut and jatropha methyl ester in Thailand. Papong
et al. (2010) analyzed life cycle energy efficiency of palm methyl ester in Thailand.
7.4.2 Inter-temporal Inequality
This subsection makes a comparison between plant oil production in Germany and
that in Malaysia, to illustrate the relationship between land use impact assessment
and policy issues. The inventory data used for both of the oil production are ecoinvent 2.2. The environmental impacts measured are land use impacts on biodiversity
developed by Schmidt (2010). Characterization factors for Denmark and Malaysia
were used in the assessment, and the unit of the impact is weighted species richness
on a standardized area at 100 m
2
(wS 100 ).
The result is depicted in Table 7.1 and summarized as follows: First, the impact
of occupation for rape oil is larger than that for palm oil. Second, the impact of
transformation from nature to agriculture is larger than that from agriculture to agriculture. Third, the impact of transformation from nature to agriculture in Europe is
larger than that in Southeast Asia.
The result implies that there is an inter-temporal inequality between Europe and
Southeast Asia. In other words, the environmental impact of past transformation in
K. Hayashi
7.4 Case Studies of Land Use Impact Assessment: Palm Oil
Production
Before making case studies of land use impacts of palm oil production, a general
overview of LCA applied to palm oil production is given.
7.4.1 Literature Review of LCA Applied to Palm Oil
After a feasibility study of LCA on crude palm oil production in Malaysia by Yusoff
and Hansen (2007), the number of papers published in scientific journals was
increased. Vijaya et al. (2008) made life cycle inventories of 12 palm oil mills in
Malaysia. Wicke et al. (2008) analyzed GHG emissions of crude palm oil and palm
fatty acid distillate production in northern Borneo (Malaysia), their transport to the
Netherlands, and their co-firing with natural gas for electricity production. They
stressed that land use change is the most decisive factor in overall GHG emissions
and that degraded land should be used for palm oil production. Lam et al. (2009)
conducted LCA of palm and jatropha methyl ester (biodiesel) and assessed land
requirement, energy balance, and CO 2 emissions and sequestration in Malaysia.
Case studies were not restricted to Malaysia. Angarita et al. (2009) analyzed the
life cycle energy balance in palm methyl ester in Brazil and Colombia. Pleanjai and
Gheewala (2009) compared the net energy balance and the net energy ratio of palm
methyl ester with those of coconut and jatropha methyl ester in Thailand. Papong
et al. (2010) analyzed life cycle energy efficiency of palm methyl ester in Thailand.
7.4.2 Inter-temporal Inequality
This subsection makes a comparison between plant oil production in Germany and
that in Malaysia, to illustrate the relationship between land use impact assessment
and policy issues. The inventory data used for both of the oil production are ecoinvent 2.2. The environmental impacts measured are land use impacts on biodiversity
developed by Schmidt (2010). Characterization factors for Denmark and Malaysia
were used in the assessment, and the unit of the impact is weighted species richness
on a standardized area at 100 m
2
(wS 100 ).
The result is depicted in Table 7.1 and summarized as follows: First, the impact
of occupation for rape oil is larger than that for palm oil. Second, the impact of
transformation from nature to agriculture is larger than that from agriculture to agriculture. Third, the impact of transformation from nature to agriculture in Europe is
larger than that in Southeast Asia.
The result implies that there is an inter-temporal inequality between Europe and
Southeast Asia. In other words, the environmental impact of past transformation in
K. Hayashi