Biofuels - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 189

biodiesel has a 63% net fossil energy loss (Pimentel et al. 2009). Not surprisingly, subsi-
dies provided the conditions for expansion of production. The US federal government
had provided $500 million annually in subsidies for the production of 3.6 billion liters
of biodiesel (Koplow 2006; US Energy Information Administration 2013b )—which is
74 times greater than the subsidies per liter of diesel fuel—before Congress allowed bio-
diesel tax incentives to expire in 2011 (Yacobucci 2012).
The environmental impacts of producing soybean biodiesel are second only to that of
corn ethanol:
1. Soybean production causes significant soil erosion, second only to corn produc-
tion (NAS. 2003).
2. Soybean production uses large quantities of herbicides, second only to corn pro-
duction (USDA 2007). These herbicides cause major pollution problems with nat-
ural biota in the soybean production areas (Artuzi and Contiero 2006; Pimentel
2006).
3. The USDA (2005) reports a soybean yield worldwide of 2.2 tons per hectare.
With an average oil extraction efficiency of 18% (USDA 1975, 2005), the average oil
yield per year would be approximately 0.4 tons per hectare. This converts into 454 liters
of oil per hectare. Based on current US diesel consumption of 227 billion liters/year
(Tickell, 2006), this would require more than 500 million ha of land in soybeans, or
more than half the total US land planted set aside just for soybeans. In addition, all 71
billion tons of soybeans produced in the United States (USDA 2006) could only supply
less than 3% of total US oil consumption.
Rapeseed and Canola Biodiesel
The European Biodiesel Board estimates a total biodiesel production of 4.89 million tons
for the year 2006 (EBB 2007). Well suited to the colder climates, rapeseed is the domi-
nant crop used in European biodiesel production. Often confused with canola, rapeseed
is an inedible crop of the Brassica family, yielding oil seeds high in erucic acid. Canola
is in the same family, but it is a hybrid created to lower saturated fat content and erucic
acid content for human consumption in cooking oil and margarine (Tickell 2006).
Rapeseed-based biodiesel yields in Europe averaged 1,390 liters per hectare in 2005
(Frondel and Peters 2007). Using the density of biodiesel defined as 0.88 kg/l (Frondel
and Peters 2007), it can be estimated that the average annual production of rapeseed
biodiesel in Europe is 1.1 million tons total. Because of its high oil content (30%), rape-
seed is preferred as a biodiesel feedstock source (Tickell 2006). While Europe currently
dominates the rapeseed production in the world, as the market for high-yield oilseed
feedstock for biodiesel grows, interest in canola and rapeseed oil is likely to increase in
many northern states of the United States, and in Canada (Tickell 2006).