Implications of land use change on the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from palm biodiesel production in Thailand

The study evaluates the greenhouse gas (GHG) balance of biodiesel production through three chosen land use change scenarios in Thailand: rubber plantation to oil palm plantation in Krabi, cassava plantation to oil palm plantation in Chonburi, and abandoned land to oil palm plantation in Pathumthani. The carbon stock changes were estimated based on the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories and combined with the life cycle GHG emissions from palm oil and biodiesel production in Thailand. For 1 million liters of biodiesel production per day, the Krabi, Chonburi and Pathumthani cases resulted in − 709 Mg CO2-eq/day, − 748 Mg CO2-eq/day and − 600 Mg CO2-eq/day, respectively. The Pathumthani case showed the lowest negative GHG balance even with least fertilization partly because of larger transportation distances while the Chonburi case was the highest despite low yield as it would require more land to grow oil palm for the same amount of biodiesel, resulting in more soil carbon being sequestered. However, the land use change scenarios chosen for this study all show a negative GHG balance which means that biodiesel helps reduce GHG in the atmosphere.

Research highlights
► GHG implications of land use change for palm biodiesel in Thailand are evaluated.
► Land use change from rubber, cassava and abandoned land show benefit on soil carbon.
► GHG balance for 1 ML biodiesel production ranges between –600 to –750 Mg CO2-eq/day.