Open AccessCrop‐based biofuels and associated environmental concerns
Author(s) -
Smith Keith A.,
Searchinger Timothy D.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
gcb bioenergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.378
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1757-1707
pISSN - 1757-1693
DOI - 10.1111/j.1757-1707.2012.01182.x
Subject(s) - biofuel , greenhouse gas , biomass (ecology) , bioenergy , environmental science , life cycle assessment , crop , fossil fuel , energy crop , land use, land use change and forestry , aviation biofuel , natural resource economics , agronomy , land use , waste management , production (economics) , economics , engineering , ecology , biology , macroeconomics
Current Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) models indicate that crop‐based biofuels generate greenhouse gas savings, compared with fossil fuels. We argue that they do so only because they ignore the emissions of CO 2 from vehicles burning the biofuels without determining if the biomass is “additional,” and because they underestimate the ultimate emissions of N 2 O from nitrogen fertiliser use. Taking proper account of these factors would result in very different findings. It would be far better to derive biofuels from biomass, from waste feedstocks or high‐yielding bioenergy crops with low nitrogen demand, grown on currently unproductive land.