Biodiesel

NREL/SR-580-24089 UC Category 1503

Life Cycle Inventory of Biodiesel and Petroleum Diesel for Use in an Urban Bus

A Joint Study Sponsored by: U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Energy
Final Report May 1998

NOTICE NOTICE: This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. Neither the United States government nor anyagency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name,trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States government or any agency thereof. Printed in the United States of America Available to DOE and DOEcontractors from: Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) P.O. Box 62 Oak Ridge, TN 37831 Prices available by calling (423) 576-8401 Available to the public from: National Technical Information Service (NTIS) U.S. Department of Commerce 5285 Port Royal Road Springfield, VA 22161 (703) 487-4650 A limited supply is also available from Sally Evans National Renewable Energy Laboratory 1617 ColeBoulevard Golden, CO 80125 (303) 275-4363

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Life Cycle Inventory of Biodiesel and Petroleum Diesel for Use in an Urban Bus Final Report
May 1998
by

John Sheehan Vince Camobreco James Duffield Michael Graboski Housein Shapouri

Prepared for: U.S. Department of Energy’s Officeof Fuels Development and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Energy Prepared by: the National Renewable Energy Laboratory 1617 Cole Boulevard Golden, Colorado 80401-3393 A national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy Operated by Midwest Research Institute Under Contract No. DE-AC02-83CH10093 Prepared under Task No. BF886002

Life Cycle Inventory of Biodiesel and Petroleum Dieseli

NREL/SR-580-24089

Acknowledgements
Life cycle studies require a lot of thoughtfulness, hard work and patience. We have been fortunate enough to have all of these. The core team of workers comes from a variety of organizations. The ability to pull off this kind of collaboration among so many groups is a tribute to each of the individual organizations.

From the U.S. Department ofEnergy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory…
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John Sheehan, who initiated and organized this whole effort at the start, provided detailed process modeling for the soybean crushing and biodiesel production technologies. K. Shaine Tyson, NREL Project Manager for DOE’s Biodiesel Program, provided overview and management for the work (and, more importantly, shared her insights based her experienceconducting a life cycle study for ethanol).

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From the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Energy…
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Jim Duffield, who coordinated this study for USDA, was the lead contributor to the soybean agriculture portion of the model. Housein Shapouri, a co-author of the soybean agriculture section, provided invaluable support in collecting and analyzing USDA’s data on soybean farmpractices.

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From Ecobalance, Inc. and the the Colorado Institute for Fuels and High Altitude Engine Research (CIFER) at the Colorado School of Mines…
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CIFER’s Mike Graboski, through the support of USDA’s Office of Energy, took the lead in collecting and analyzing all of the available data on biodiesel and petroleum diesel performance in bus engines. Ecobalance’s Vince Camobreco, who...