Greenhouse Gas Reduction of an Advanced Philippine Coco-Biodiesel Refinery Strategic to the Philippine Nationally Determined Contribution

Abstract

 To assess biodiesel’s sustainability and its role in the country’s GHG reduction efforts, a cradle-to-grave carbon footprint of a 90 million liter per year (MLPY) coconut biodiesel refinery in the Philippines (CBP) was assessed using primary data, verified through material and energy balance simulations. The company’s 2019 inventory was used in the analysis to curtail the effects of COVID-19 pandemic in the actual annual production. Key assumptions and limitations included no land-use change, the application of carbon neutrality, the economic allocation method, and the IPCC 2013 assessment method within the SimaPro v.9.0.0.49 database. The estimated carbon footprint of the coco-biodiesel is 0.79891 kg CO2e kg-1 or 0.70863 kg CO2e L-1. CBP coco-biodiesel offers a GHG reduction of about 77.89% compared to fossil diesel (L L-1 basis, cradle-to-grave), which satisfies the nationally determined unconditional GHG reduction contribution of the Philippines to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change set at 2.71%. Between the blends B3 and B4, it is projected to reduce diesel transport GHG emissions by 2.34-3.11%. Sensitivity analyses examined the outcome of using energy allocation and assessed various local production variables, such as, coconut farming practices, varying nut yields, sources of crude coconut oil for RBD (refined, bleached, deodorized) refining, and the type of refining employed. 

Keywords: carbon footprint, biodiesel, Philippines, life cycle, GHG reduction, coconut, flow representativeness, flow reliability