The water footprint of energy from biomass: A quantitative assessment and consequences of an increasing share of bio-energy in energy supply

Gerbens-Leenes, P.W.; Hoekstra, Arjen Ysbert; Meer, Theodorus H. van der

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2008.07.013

Cited by 366 publications

(184 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Previous studies used evapotranspiration models to estimate water consumption by corn. A recent study (40) estimates the corn water requirement of the U.S. to be 308 L per kg of corn, which can be translated into 725 L L -1 of EWe with a corn-to-ethanol conversion rate of 0.43 L per kg of corn. The Ewe figure calculated from (40) is based on evapotranspiration modeling, and therefore, it includes both irrigation water and natural precipitation, which makes a direct comparison with our results difficult.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Embodied in Bioethanol in the United States

Chiu

Walseth

Suh

2009

Environ. Sci. Technol.

129

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Prior studies have estimated that a liter of bioethanol requires 263-784 L of water from corn farm to fuel pump, but these estimates have failed to account for the widely varied regional irrigation practices. By using regional time-series agricultural and ethanol production data in the U.S., this paper estimates the state-level field-to-pump water requirement of bioethanol across the nation. The results indicate that bioethanol's water requirements can range from 5 to 2138 L per liter of ethanol depending on regional irrigation practices. The results also show that as the ethanol industry expands to areas that apply more irrigated water than others, consumptive water appropriation by bioethanol in the U.S. has increased 246% from 1.9 to 6.1 trillion liters between 2005 and 2008, whereas U.S. bioethanol production has increased only 133% from 15 to 34 billion liters during the same period. The results highlight the need to take regional specifics into account when implementing biofuel mandates.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Embodied in Bioethanol in the United States

Chiu

Walseth

Suh

2009

Environ. Sci. Technol.

129

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“…It also helps compare the performance of one production system with other feasible options in the market. For example, "1.5.1 fresh water consumption/ water footprint" threshold value has been determined as 62 m 3 /GJ, which is the average water footprint values obtained from 15 different oil crops planted in a country with tropical weather [91]. "2.1.1 Plantation yield" and "2.1.2 Mill production efficiency" have been considered as PMs for the economic sustainability objective.…”

Section: Five-level Ranking System and Development Of Benchmarking Critmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Evaluation of Holistic Sustainability Assessment Framework for Palm Oil Production in Malaysia

Lim

Biswas

2015

Sustainability

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Palm oil based biodiesel offers an alternative energy source that can reduce current dependence on conventional fossil fuels and may reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions depending on the type of feedstock and processes used. In the Malaysian context, the palm oil industry not only provides high-yield, renewable feedstock to the world, it brings socio-economic development to the Malaysian rural community and contributes to the national income. However, the sustainability of palm oil remains controversial, due to deforestation, pollution and social conflicts associated with its production. Sustainability assessment is vital for the palm oil industry to identify weaknesses, improve its sustainability performance and improve consumer confidence. This paper proposes a holistic sustainability assessment framework for palm oil production with the aim to address the weaknesses of existing palm oil sustainability assessment methods. It identifies environmental, social and economic Headline Performance Indicators, Key Performance Indicators and their Performance Measures in crude palm oil production in a structured framework. Each quantitative/semi-quantitative performance measure is translated into Likert Scale of 1-5, where 3 is the threshold value, 5 is the ideal condition, and 1 is the worst case scenario. Calculation methods were established for the framework to provide quantitative assessment results. The framework was tested using a hypothetical example with data from existing studies. The results suggest that crude palm oil production in Malaysia is below the sustainability threshold. Evaluations of this sustainability assessment framework also demonstrate that it is a comprehensive assessment method for assessing sustainability of feedstock for biofuel production.

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“…The estimates provided in Table 1 vary considerably in their spatial extent, from estimates valid for one specific (single) plant as, for example, Herath et al (2011), via estimates given as average values for a region (e.g., one US State as for instance given by Gleick, 1992) to a global average as provided by Gerbens-Leenes et al (2009). This means that the estimates are not applicable for use on all scales and support different types of decision-making.…”

Section: Available Publications and Their Range In Estimatesmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…The primary data presented in Table 1 are either a range of estimates providing minimum, average and the maximum values for a number of single-plant studies or estimates providing spatial aggregated estimates for water consumption, for example, average estimates for the region California (Gleick, 1992) or a world-wide average (Gerbens-Leenes et al, 2009). Despite this, some of the given publications are based on water consumption estimates from single-plants and these data are also available from the publications.…”

Section: Data Sources Providing Single-plants Estimatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water consumption from hydropower plants – review of published estimates and an assessment of the concept

Bakken

Killingtveit

Engeland

et al. 2013

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Since the report from IPCC on renewable energy (IPCC, 2012) was published; more studies on water consumption from hydropower have become available. The newly published studies do not, however, contribute to a more consistent picture on what the "true" water consumption from hydropower plants is. The dominant calculation method is the gross evaporation from the reservoirs divided by the annual power production, which appears to be an oversimplistic calculation method that possibly produces a biased picture of the water consumption of hydropower plants. This review paper shows that the water footprint of hydropower is used synonymously with water consumption, based on gross evaporation rates. This paper also documents and discusses several methodological problems when applying this simplified approach (gross evaporation divided by annual power production) for the estimation of water consumption from hydropower projects. A number of short-comings are identified, including the lack of clarity regarding the setting of proper system boundaries in space and time. The methodology of attributing the water losses to the various uses in multi-purpose reservoirs is not developed. Furthermore, a correct and fair methodology for handling water consumption in reservoirs based on natural lakes is needed, as it appears meaningless that all the evaporation losses from a close-to-natural lake should be attributed to the hydropower production. It also appears problematic that the concept is not related to the impact the water consumption will have on the local water resources, as high water consumption values might not be problematic per se. Finally, it appears to be a paradox that a reservoir might be accorded a very high water consumption/footprint and still be the most feasible measure to improve the availability of water in a region. We argue that reservoirs are not always the problem; rather they may contribute to the solution of the problems of water scarcity. The authors consider that an improved conceptual framework is needed in order to calculate the water footprint from hydropower projects in a more reasonable way.

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The water footprint of energy from biomass: A quantitative assessment and consequences of an increasing share of bio-energy in energy supply

Cited by 366 publications

References 19 publications

Water Embodied in Bioethanol in the United States

Water Embodied in Bioethanol in the United States

An Evaluation of Holistic Sustainability Assessment Framework for Palm Oil Production in Malaysia

Water consumption from hydropower plants – review of published estimates and an assessment of the concept

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