The Renewable Energy Directive (RED) of the European Union proposes default GHG emission savings values for different types of biofuels. In this paper rapeseed and soybean biodiesel chains were evaluated, comparing RED values to typical values obtained for Italian case. In compliance to the EU RED methodology, each chain was divided in four steps: biomass cultivation, transport and processing and fuel transport. Each input and output was compared to data of typical Italian chains of producing rapeseed and soybean biodiesel. For the cultivation phase, typical farming techniques in the Veneto region were assumed, employing the IPCC methodology for the calculation of N2O direct and indirect emissions. Processing step was divided in three processes: oil extraction, refining of vegetable oil and esterification of refined oil; data were obtained from the most important Italian biodiesel production plants. Results for rapeseed biodiesel showed that GHG saving for Italian chain was 49%, against 38% reported as default value in the EU RED, while for soybean biodiesel this difference was more marked (67% for Italian chain against 31%), mainly due to the fact that Brazilian cultivation was considered in the EU RED.

Proceedings of the 18th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 3-7 May 2010, Lyon, France, pp. 2230-2235