EU sustainability criteria for biofuels: uncertainties in GHG emissions from cultivation

Ahlgren, Serina and Röös, Elin and Di Lucia, Lorenzo and Sundberg, Cecilia and Hansson, Per-Anders (2012) EU sustainability criteria for biofuels: uncertainties in GHG emissions from cultivation. Biofuels, 3 (4). pp. 399-411. ISSN 1759-7269

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Abstract

Cultivation of raw material represents a large proportion of biofuels´ GHG emissions. The EU renewable energy directive 2009/28/EC specifies a GHG emission default value for cultivation of biofuel raw material (23 g CO2-e/MJ ethanol for wheat). The aim of this study was to quantify the uncertainty in GHG emissions for wheat cultivation in Sweden, considering uncertainty and variability in data at farm level. Results: Two levels of data collection at farm level were analyzed; simple (only yield and amount of N) and advanced (also including amounts and types of energy). The 2.5–97.5 percentile uncertainty for Swedish winter wheat was 20–27 g CO2-e/MJ, which can be considered large in the context of the Directive’s threshold of 23 g (to two significant figures). Conclusion: It is concluded that quantifying GHG emissions in order to regulate biofuels is a difficult task, especially emissions from cultivation, since these are biological systems with large variability.

Item Type:	Scientific journal article, Newspaper article or Magazine article
Subjects:	Veterinary Sciences, Agriculture and related subjects > Agriculture > Agriculture not elsewhere classified
Department/unit:	Dipartimento economia aziendale, sanità e sociale > Centro competenze management e imprenditorialità
Depositing User:	Lorenzo Di Lucia
Date Deposited:	21 Dec 2022 11:14
Last Modified:	14 Sep 2023 17:00
URI:	http://repository.supsi.ch/id/eprint/13640

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