Study on sustainabilty of madhuca biodiesel

Madhuca is one of the promising tree species suitable for providing oil for biodiesel production. This paper addresses the life cycle energy balance, global warming potential and ecological impact of a small scale biodiesel production in rural Karnataka. The environmental impacts have been benchmarked with the life cycle impacts of fossil diesel. Net Energy Gain has been found to be 17.17 MJ/functional unit. Global warming potential (GWP) was found to be (38.45 gCO₂-eq) seven times less than fossil diesel. Acidification and eutrophication potential of Madhuca system was found to be insignificant. It is also observed that one hectare of Madhuca plantation is capable of completely sequestering the CO₂ released during the life cycle (0.2 t CO₂/hectare) with additional sequestration potential up to 5.8 t CO₂/hectare. Moreover, the above aspects were significantly superior in Madhuca system when compared to Jatropha biodiesel system and on par with Pongamia biodiesel system. Further, it has been concluded that biodiesel production from Madhuca oil is ecologically viable.