Life cycle inventory of physic nut biodiesel: comparison between the manual and mechanized agricultural production systems practiced in Brazil.

摘要

The physic nut (Jatropha curcas L.) is an oleaginous species recently introduced into Brazil for energy purposes. The technological framework for the development of the physic nut biodiesel productive chain in Brazil is still being set up. Two production systems are in practice at the agricultural level, the small scale manual system and the medium scale mechanized system. The objective of the present research was to assess the environmental performance of these two production systems by elaborating life-cycle inventories (LCIs) using a cradle-to-gate approach. The main environmental aspects of these LCIs are the synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, land-use changes and its emissions and the occupation of the land. Making use of the residues from the agroindustrial physic nut chain and the use of biological pest control methods could improve the environmental performance of these systems.