IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute

This study is an attributional cradle-to-gate assessment of the climate impact associated with vegetable oils contained in the used cooking oil (UCO) in the feedstock for biofuel production in the US. It quantifies the greenhouse gas emissions of the primary production of a mix of soybean oil, canola oil, palm oil and sunflower oil. Regional differences in the production were considered by applying region-specific datasets where available and proxy datasets where necessary. Life cycle inventory data were primarily sourced from the Agri-footprint database developed by Blonk Consultants and processed using the Brightway framework. The Environmental Footprint (EF) method was applied to assess climate change impacts. The results enable the application of alternative allocation approaches in which emissions associated with primary vegetable oil production is attributed to biomass-based diesel produced from UCO. The upstream emissions associated with vegetable oil production were subsequently converted to fuel-energy-based emission factors for biodiesel (fatty acid methyl ester; FAME) and renewable diesel (RD/HVO) using fuel-specific feedstock conversion factors and lower heating values.