DOI: 10.5176/2251-189X_SEES15.22
Authors: Kai Hui Wu and Jo-Han Ng, Cheng Tung Chong
Abstract:
Significant amount of research has been dedicated to improve biodiesel sustainability and viability in the recent years. However, there is a lack of analysis on the feedstock availability and economic feasibility of biodiesel implementation. In this paper, a global upper-limit biodiesel volume from 213 countries is calculated from export quantities of raw vegetable oil and animal fat that had not been used for biodiesel production. A global potential biodiesel volume of 73.6 billion litres of biodiesel has been calculated, which is more than a three-fold increase from current biodiesel production volume. From the global biodiesel potential volume, 82{6e6090cdd558c53a8bc18225ef4499fead9160abd3419ad4f137e902b483c465} of the potential biodiesel volume evaluated can be produced profitably when compared to a baseline biodiesel import price. This can generate a higher net export profit as compared to raw feedstock and become a non-trivial source of national income to increase GDP. Estimated biodiesel prices when compared to a baseline biodiesel import price suggest that 37 countries can potentially profit from biodiesel production. About 50{6e6090cdd558c53a8bc18225ef4499fead9160abd3419ad4f137e902b483c465} of the 53 countries considered to have sufficient feedstock for biodiesel production on a large-scale basis can produce biodiesel at a lower cost than diesel. The large potential volume of biodiesel reduced the production cost through economies of scale and result in a more competitive pricing against conventional diesel. Biodiesel has been deemed unable to entirely replace the world diesel energy consumption with the current feedstock selections, production quantity and crop yield. Subsequently, a worldwide upper-limit B9 biodiesel fuel blend level has been calculated to be achievable with the calculated potential biodiesel volume. This is a substantial increase because current biodiesel world production can only allow a worldwide B2 fuel blend level.
Keywords: Biodiesel; Fuel blend; GDP; Profit
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