CARB affirms biodiesel as lowest-carbon fuel

Sept. 30, 2015

In a fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, California’s Air Resources Board has spent years looking for the cleanest, most efficient ways to cut carbon. Turns out, biodiesel is at the top of the list.

Recently, the board finalized California’s revised Low Carbon Fuels Standard. The new standard affirms America’s Advanced Biofuel reduces greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% and often by as much as 81% versus petroleum. This gives biodiesel the best carbon score among all liquid fuels.

“Biodiesel is the most sustainable fuel on the planet,” said Don Scott, National Biodiesel Board director of sustainability. “Low carbon alternatives can also be low cost alternatives when we use diverse supplies of renewable resources. This validates that California’s carbon reduction goals are obtainable.”

As part of the state’s low carbon fuel standard, the Air Resources Board has refined comprehensive lifecycle analysis to quantify the carbon intensity of conventional and alternative fuels. More than seven years of analysis have gone into addressing questions including indirect land use change.   California’s lifecycle model incorporates all the impacts for producing a fuel’s raw materials including conversion and transportation. The model also includes the indirect economic impacts of growth in global agriculture-making it one of the most thorough and rigorous evaluations ever done to quantify the environmental footprint of biofuels.

The findings echo what the US Environmental Protection Agency  determined five years ago in establishing the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Under that program, biodiesel qualifies as an Advanced Biofuel, with the US EPA analysis showing that it reduces carbon emissions from 57 percent to 86 percent.

“California’s analysis, which has been validated by independent academic review, provides confidence that biodiesel is, without question, a more sustainable alternative for transportation fuel,” Scott said. “The commercial success of the growing biodiesel industry suggests goals to further reduce greenhouse gases and displace imported petroleum are appropriate and achievable. With a focus on carbon reduction and the national policy to support it, biodiesel could reduce carbon emission by 40 million tons annually.”