COMPARATIVE LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF FIVE DIFFERENT VEGETABLE OILS Ivan Muñoz, Jannick Hoejrup Schmidt*, Randi Dalgaard 2.-0 LCA consultants, Skibbrogade, 5, 1, 9000, Aalborg, Denmark *Email: [email protected]

OBJECTIVES • To evaluate the environmental impacts of several major vegetable oils (Fig. 1), providing decision support for situations where these oils are substitutable.

METHODS oil oil Consequential life cycle inventory (CLCI) modelling • The attributional approach would fail to comply with the purpose of the study, which focuses on predicting the consequences of choosing different oils. CLCI involved applying system expansion rather than allocation, and marginal rather than average suppliers. • Production of refined vegetable oils is associated with by-products, namely oil meals from the Sunflower oil Peanut oil oil mills and free fatty acids (FFA) from the refining process. Both are used as animal feed. Oil meals and FFA will substitute marginal suppliers of feed protein and feed energy in proportion Fig 1. Vegetable oils under study. with their protein and energy content. Scope and assumptions • The oils were inventoried from cradle to gate, including: 1) oil crop cultivation, 2) oil mill, and 3) refinery. The palm oil system includes an additional step, since the kernels are sent to another oil extraction step. Fig. 2 shows the process diagram for palm oil and rapeseed oil. • The functional unit is 1 ton of refined oil. • Marginal suppliers are summarised in Table 1. Feed protein is based on Brazilian soybean, whereas feed energy is based on barley from Ukraine. Table 1. Marginal suppliers of main raw materials. Product Fresh fruit bunches Soybean Rapeseed Sunflower Peanut Barley Fig. 2. Process diagrams for palm oil (left) and rapeseed oil (right). NBD: Supplier Malaysia/Indonesia Brazil EU27 Ukraine India Ukraine neutralized, bleached, deodorized, FFB: fresh fruit bunches, CPO: crude palm oil, CPKO crude , FFA: free fatty acids, PO: palm oil, • For all systems the determining product is the oil, whereas in soybean PKO: palm kernel oil, PKM: palm kernel meal, RSM: rapeseed meal, CRSO: it is the meal. Thus demanding soybean oil does not lead to soybean oil crude rapeseed oil. production, but to the marginal oil production, assumed to be palm oil. • Indirect land use change (iLUC) is included by means of a Indirect land use changes (iLUC) CO deterministic model taking into account land transformation and land 2 Transformation of land Market for land Productive land Productive land intensification (Fig. 3) [1]. Oil palm cultivation • Impact assessment is performed at midpoint, including Greenhouse- Fertiliser d n a Tractors l gas (GHG) emissions, water use, water use adjusted for the Water e v ti c u el stress index (WSI) and land occupation. d es N O ro Di 2 Intensification of land P • Temporary biogenic carbon sequestration in the oil is included as a CO2

negative emission of -2.8 kg CO2/kg oil. of land RESULTS • GHG emissions are lowest for rapeseed oil and the highest for peanut oil. Fig. 3. Conceptual representation of the iLUC model used in the study. The latter is related to low yield.

• iLUC substantially increases GHG emissions, but the ranking is not changed. Global%warming%(incl.%iLUC),%kg%CO2Ceq% Global%warming%(excl.%iLUC),%kg%CO2Deq% 4717$ 5000$ 2500$ 2124$ • Rapeseed oil and sunflower oil involve a net saving of freshwater, due to the 4000$ 2000$ 1418$ 1418$ 3000$ 1500$ displacement of animal feed through meal by-product. 2024$ 2024$ 2000$ 1000$ • The inclusion of the WSI factor does not change the ranking of oils in terms 760$ 1000$ 262$ 500$ %96$ %178$ of water use. 0$ 0$ Palm%oil%% Soybean% Rapeseed%Sunflower%Peanut%oil% Palm%oil%% Soybean% Rapeseed%Sunflower%Peanut%oil% %500$ • Land occupation is higher for peanut oil and oil% oil% oil% oil% oil% oil%

sunflower oil, due to lower yields. Water%use%7%blue,%m3% Water%use%7%WSI,%m37eq% Land%occupa8on,%m2year% 3000% 3500% 20000$ 18750$ 2477% 2981% • The results of palm oil and soybean oil are 2500% 3000% 15000$ equal since soybean oil is constrained (the 2000% 2500% 11150$ 2000% 1500% 10000$ 1500% meal is determining). Consequently, demand 1000% 1000% 5000$ 500% 1712$ 1712$ 2352$ 7.13% 7.13% &362% 500% for soybean oil leads to production of the &431% !0.3% !0.3% !19% !26% 0% 0% 0$ marginal oil, i.e. palm oil. &500% Palm%oil%% Soybean% Rapeseed%Sunflower%Peanut%oil% !500% Palm%oil%% Soybean% Rapeseed%Sunflower%Peanut%oil% Palm%oil%% Soybean% Rapeseed%Sunflower%Peanut%oil% &1000% oil% oil% oil% oil% oil% oil% oil% oil% oil%

Fig. 4. Results per ton refined oil. Global Warming includes biogenic carbon sequestration in the oil.

References: [1] Schmidt J H, et al. (2012) A model of indirect land-use change. 8th 2.-0 LCA consultants International Conference on LCA in the Agri‐Food Sector, 1‐4 Oct 2012, St. Malo, -for high quality decision support France. [2] Schmidt J H (2014) Life cycle assessment fo five vegetable oils. Journal of Cleaner Production, submitted. www.lca-net.com