Study of life cycle assessment in biodiesel production from crude palm oil and its benefits for the sustainability of oil palm industry in Aceh province Indonesia

Abstract

LCA is a method used to quantificate impact especially environmental aspect from production of product. The environmental impact that can be calculated by LCA is very diverse, approximately 18 impacts, which called midpoint impact. The most commonly calculated impact is GWP, which is derived from GHG emissions. In Indonesia LCA began to develop and be used by govermnet or industry to calculate impact from their activities especially production of product. One of the industry that use LCA is palm oil industry. Indonesia palm oil is criticsm from both domestic and international level because of the environmental impact and unsustainable. However, production of biodiesel from CPO in Indonesia can reduced emission is 47 % if we compare to diesel fuel. Even though the source of the energy is considered as carbon neutral, the production path can emit various environmentally hazardous gasses. Scientific approach through Life Cycle Assessment can be used as a tool to assess this issue. Number of LCA study on Indonesian biodiesel production come up with different result. This difference could be due to data inconsistency and did not present the actual condition found in the field. According to those aforementioned situations, an effort to address this issue should be conducted by identifying and presenting actual condition of Indonesian palm oil estate. This study is aimed to analyze implementation of life cycle assessment for oil palm industry from oil palm cultivation to biodiesel combustion in vehicle (upstream to downstream) in Indonesia