Abstract

VALENCIA-BOTERO, Mónica Julieth; RINCON-PEREZ, Luis Eduardo  and  CARDONA ALZATE, Carlos Ariel. Effect of Change in Land Use due to Oil Palm Cultivation for Biodiesel Production in Colombia. Ing. Univ. [online]. 2014, vol.18, n.1, pp.91-102. ISSN 0123-2126.

The bioenergy (especially biofuels) production and use has been worldly encouraged as a possible solution for the energy crisis caused by fossil fuel extraction and burnt. However, some intrinsic features of the biofuels supply chain generate notable uncertainties. The land use change can be considered a key issue of the feedstock production stage. In this work, the carbon replacement time was calculated for the cases of the oil palm growing in soils for forest, degraded lands and marginal lands. Most cultivated lands are required to increase the biodiesel production in Colombia. Additionally, the greenhouse gas emission from the land use change was calculated, when the palm crops are extended to achieve B20 blends. The results indicated that the palm crop growing on degraded and marginal lands, as well as palm cultivated in Eastern zone, do not generate carbon debt. Moreover, oil palm growing under these conditions helps to increase the carbon captures of these lands. The Eastern zone shows the highest carbon capture power.

Keywords : carbon replacement time; land use change; palm oil biodiesel; Diesel fuels; vegetable oils as fuel; palm-oil; crop rotation.

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