Conference article

With the aim to reinforce the sustainability of biofuel production the EU directive 2009/28/EC has recently introduced a set of criteria aiming to reduce environmental effects of uncontrolled biofuel production. The criteria introduced by the directive define a procedure to compute the Green House Gases (GHG) emission of biofuel production based on the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) approach. Nevertheless; although this approach is quite consolidated in some production systems; it represents a novelty in the biofuel sector. Using the Strengths; Weaknesses; Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis in this paper it is compared the approach introduced by the directive with the main results emerged from a selection of papers; on the same subject; published in international journals in the last five years. The main results show as the new approach and the calculation method adopted could be a positive guideline for a better assessment of GHG emission at European level. However; some aspect could improve the efficiency of the new directive. Indirect land use change; functional unit and the involvement of other environmental impacts are some of the aspects that should be considered in order to refine the directive calculation method. Moreover; the paper highlights how it is fundamental to establish a right trade-off between LCA application and bureaucratic constraints for economic agents operating in biofuel production chain.

Biofuel sustainability; Life Cycle Analysis; Directive 2009/28/EC