Conversion of Waste Cooking Oil to Biodiesel:

Life Cycle Assessment

Zhang Zhe and Rajasekhar Balasubramanian

Division of Environmental Science & Engineering
National University of Singapore
• To compare the life cycle emission of carbon
dioxide and particulate matter (PM) from
biodiesel (generated from waste cooking oil) and
diesel

• To gain insights into

biodiesel’s life cycle impacts on
the environment

What is Life Cycle Analysis?
• It is an investigation and evaluation of the environmental
impacts of a given product caused by its existence.
• It measures the whole life cycle of the
product

Raw Material
Production Process

Use
End of Life Phase

Importance of Life Cycle Analysis
• The environmental impact generated from all
the processes is analyzed, not only the
manufacture or end use process
• Gain overall understanding
about a product’s entire
environmental impact

Life Cycle of Petroleum Diesel
Shipping
with Emissions
Ocean
Tanker

Life Cycle of Waste Cooking Oil Biodiesel

Emissions
• Process

• Transesterification

Material (Adapted from the laboratory experiment)

Original waste cooking oil 1.0638 L

Methanol used 0.2128 L
KOH used 8.511 g
Biodiesel Generated 1L
To represent the industrial practice, the following data
obtained from a research done by U.S. National Biodiesel
Board were used for the analysis.

Energy Use
Electricity 0.0502 kWh
Natural Gas 0.02581 m3

Applications developed for the life cycle analysis

• Entire life cycle is broken down into different life stages of

the product.

• Each life stage is further broken down to sub-processes.

• The environmental impact from each sub-process

is analyzed.

• The integration of all the environmental impact is the

life cycle impact.
Life Cycle Emission = ∑ E ×e
i
i j

• i: different life stages

• Ei: the amount of sub-process used in that life

stage (Unit: L, kWh, etc.)

• ej: emission factors associated with each sub-process

(Unit: kg/L, kg/kWh)

Taking diesel as example, analysis model was used:

• Stages:
o Crude Oil Drilling in Middle East
o Transportation to Singapore with Ocean Tankers
o Refinery
o Transportation to Retail Stations
o End Use
• Sub-processes:
o Diesel, combusted in industrial boiler
o Electricity, at grid
o Gasoline, combusted in equipment
o Natural gas, combusted in industrial boiler
o Residual fuel oil, combusted in industrial boiler
All the final results are based on the same
comparison basis: 1 MJ of energy that can be derived
from the fuel

CO2 emission comparison (95.27 % reduction)
1. End Use

2. Refinery

3. Transportation to
Singapore: 8000 km

4. Drilling
1. Energy Use
During Production

2. Methanol and
KOH

Only consider about production and transportation stages.
58.96% Reduction

PM emission comparison (46.95% reduction)

44.60% Reduction

Used to measure the life cycle energy input (except end use phase)

40.57 % reduction

Biodiesel’s (from waste
cooking oil) life cycle
emission of carbon dioxide
and particulate matter is
much lower than that from
diesel

The life cycle analysis indicates that the use of biodiesel as

an alternative (automotive) fuel is acceptable from the
environmental point of view.
• To simulate industrial production process

• To obtain first-hand data of the resource usage


Data Source: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Database, experiment

Other Data Sources

• Saudi Arabia Emission Factor: CO2 Emissions from Fuel

Combustion. 2009 ed, International Energy Agency

• Singapore Emission Factor: Information on Emission

Factors 2010. National Energy Efficiency Committee

• Emission Factor for KOH: Korea LCI Database

Information Network. Korea Environmental Industry &
Technology Institute

Cost Aspects
• Most of waste cooking oil exported
• Supply of WCO cannot meet the
designed capacity
• Currently producing with cost
• Can only achieve break-even with an
increase of WCO supply by 80%

Life Cycle Analysis

Objectives

System Boundaries

Experiment to Produce Biodiesel

Analysis Model

Results and Discussion

Conclusion