Energies 2011, 4, 845-877; doi:10.3390/en4060845 OPEN ACCESS energies ISSN 1996-1073 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies Review Environmental Impacts and Costs of Hydrotreated Vegetable Oils, Transesterified Lipids and Woody BTL—A Review Kathrin Sunde 1;?, Andreas Brekke 2 and Birger Solberg 1 1 Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Sørhellinga, Høgskoleveien 12, 1430 As,˚ Norway; E-Mail:
[email protected] 2 Østfoldforskning AS, Gamle Beddingv. 2B, 1671 Krakerøy,˚ Norway; E-Mail:
[email protected] ? Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail:
[email protected]; Tel.: +47-64965759; Fax: +47-64965001. Received: 1 February 2011; in revised form: 30 March 2011 / Accepted: 19 May 2011 / Published: 25 May 2011 Abstract: This article reviews and compares assessments of three biodiesel fuels: (1) transesterified lipids, (2) hydrotreated vegetable oils (HVO), and (3) woody biomass-to-liquid (BTL) Fischer-Tropsch diesel and selected feedstock options. The article attempts to rank the environmental performance and costs of fuel and feedstock combinations. Due to inter-study differences in goal and study assumptions, the ranking was mostly qualitative and intra-study results are emphasized. Results indicate that HVO made from wastes or by-products such as tall oil, tallow or used cooking oil outperforms transesterified lipids and BTL from woody material, both with respect to environmental life cycle impacts and costs. These feedstock options are, however, of limited availability, and to produce larger volumes of biofuels other raw materials must also be used. BTL from woody biomass seems promising with good environmental performance and the ability not to compete with food production.