Sustainable alternative fuel derived from different feedstocks and its comparative life cycle assessment

The objective of the current study is to extract oil and derive biodiesel from three different scenarios karanja (S1), algae (S2), and hybrid oil (S3), and further conduct the life cycle assessment (LCA) of derived biodiesel. Biodiesel derived from hybrid oil had higher oxidation stability than algae biodiesel and lower density and viscosity than karanja biodiesel. Additionally, using GREET software, comparative life cycle assessment studies were performed for all three scenarios. One kg of biodiesel output was used as the functional unit. The total emission of CO₂ from biodiesel production in S1 is 2.03 kg, 1.60 kg in S2, and 1.85 kg in S3. Further, the environmental impact factor was calculated for all the scenarios. The EIF for scenario 1 was maximum, 0.235 followed by 0.1363 and 0.0989 for scenario 3 and scenario 2 respectively. The results of the overall effect evaluation showed that Algae or Hybrid biodiesel production is preferred to lower the emission and improve the biodiesel quality. More studies on life cycle costs and sensitivity analysis should be undertaken to assess economic viability and encourage sustainable biodiesel production.