Avaliação comparativa do ciclo de vida do biodiesel de óleo de palma a partir de dois genótipos, Elaeis Guineensis Jacq. vs Híbrido Interespecífico, estudo de caso na Colômbia: impactos ambientais e balanço energético

Abstract

Crude Palm Oil (OCP) is the largest vegetable oil produced in the world. In 2019, OCP production was 72.3 million tons per year (35.45% of the mass of total vegetable oil produced in the world), followed by soybeans with 56.8 million tons per year, and rapeseed oil with 27.5 million tons per year. However, in recent years, due to the presence of diseases, plantations of the Híbrido InterespecíficoO×G, a cross between the American palm and the African palm, increased substantially in Latin America because of its tolerance to the bud rot disease caused by Phytophthora palmivora. As a result, the key objective of this research was to evaluate and compare the energy balance and the biodiesel production chain from the E. guineensis Jacq palm genotypes and Híbrido Interespecífico(OxG), or the current agro-industrial situation in Colombia. For such purposes, an energy analysis was carried out and performance indicators of the 1st law of thermodynamics were calculated to determine the way in which energy is used in each process, as well as the potential for using palm energy per hectare. Therefore, a comparative “cradle-to-gate” analysis was carried out to verify the environmental performance of the genotypes in question. The functional unit was defined as 1.0 MJ of energy produced, and the impacts were modeled using the software package SimaPro v.8.0.3 (Pre Consultants) and quantified using the Impact 2002 + method. The results obtained from the thermodynamic analysis show a 6.2% reduction in the overall efficiency of the system, when compared with the biodiesel from E. guineensis Jacq., Nonetheless, the potential for improvement that biofuels production has from the Híbrido Interespecífico(OxG) genotype, specifically in the oil extraction stage, due to the current inefficiency existing in the mechanical subsystems (sterilization, separation, pressing, crushing, etc.) it is more than 4% in energy productivity per hectare. CO2eq emissions from the biodiesel life cycle based on traditional fruit was 12.5 g MJBD-1, not counting carbon sequestration. In comparison, the CO2eq emissions of biodiesel produced by the hybrid fruit was 13.8 g MJBD-1 . For these facts, the efficiency indicators of the life cycle of biodiesel produced by hybrid fruit showed lower values than those of conventional biodiesel, reductions of 26.9% and 19.7% in NERTotal and FER, respectively. Nevertheless, when compared with the biodiesel production of other palm researches, a better energy use of up to 1.2 energy units is observed, as well as a greater renewability of up to 3 energy units. Thus, this article concludes that the Híbrido Interespecífico(OxG) genotype has a latent potential for the production of energy, fuels and food, with low environmental impact.