Assessing Environmental Footprints of Biomass Energy – The Example of Liquid Biofuels

• Main Authors: Yeh, Chien-Hua, 葉倩華
• Other Authors: Lee, Yuh-Ming
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/30015425571611059471

碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 自然資源與環境管理研究所 === 101 === Since the global energy reserves become exhausted, human beings are suffering from the impact of energy crisis and urgently need to seek the clean and renewable energy sources. Biofuels are considered to be able to solve the energy crisis and environmental problems for they are safe, clean and renewable. The International Energy Agency (IEA) indicated that the transport sector is the second largest energy user during the period of 2005-2030; furthermore, the use of oil ranks to the first among all sectors. Therefore, the refining technology of liquid biofuels has been researched and improved actively in recent years. This study referenced some relevant researches of liquid biofuels then selected sugar cane, sweet potato, rice straw as feedstocks for bioethanol and rapeseed, soybean, waste cooking oil as feedstocks for biodiesel. Finally, analyzed the carbon footprint, water footprint and calculated the eco-efficiency of those liquid biofuels. The results show that the carbon footprint and water footprint of the bioethanol from sweet potato and the biodiesel from the rapeseed are lower. And the eco-efficiency of the bioethanol from sweet potato and biodiesel from the waste cooking oil are higher. However, the refining technology of liquid biofuels need to be further developed and improved in order to increase production and reduce the proportion of energy imports, and also mitigate the global energy crisis. Besides, the industry of biofuels needs to be developed by a long-term and stable planning from the government.