Environmental and Life Cycle Cost Assessment of Cassava Ethanol in Indonesia

Y.Y. Restianti and Shabbir H. Gheewala*

<p style="text-align:justify;"><strong>Abstract:</strong> A huge potential for biofuel in Indonesia will have the chance to play an important role in the energy mix since the energy&nbsp;supply is highly dependent on fossil fuels. Ethanol, one of the biofuels with a potential to be developed as an automobile fuel in&nbsp;Indonesia, is targeted to supply 5% of total gasoline consumption in 2006-2010. An analysis of environmental impact and cost from&nbsp;production and utilization of a 10% blend of cassava-based ethanol with gasoline, so called E10, was done using Life Cycle&nbsp;Assessment and Life Cycle Cost method, and compared with gasoline. The results obtained showed that E10 has the potential for&nbsp;reducing the global warming and abiotic depletion potentials when compared with gasoline. However, in terms of acidification and&nbsp;eutrophication potentials, E10 has higher impacts than gasoline. The price of E10 is lower than gasoline on a per liter basis; however&nbsp;when comparing the prices based on fuel economy, E10 is more expensive than gasoline. Including external costs in the calculations&nbsp;brings down the E10 price below gasoline.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> LCA, LCC, E10, bioethanol, cassava, Indonesia.</p>

Energy Scenario and Vision 2020 in India

P. Garg

<div style="text-align:justify;"><strong>Abstract: </strong>India is a country with more than 1.2 billion people accounting for more than 17% of world&rsquo;s population. It is the seventh&nbsp;largest country in the world with total land area of 3,287,263 sq kilometers. India measures 3214 km from north to south and 2993&nbsp;km from east to west. It has a land frontier of 15,200 km and coastline of 7,517 km. India has 28 states and 7 union territories. It&nbsp;faces a formidable challenge in providing adequate energy supplies to users at a reasonable cost. It is anticipated that India&rsquo;s nominal&nbsp;GDP will exceed US $ 2 trillion by March 2012. India&rsquo;s nominal GDP crossed the US $ 1 trillion mark in 2007-2008 which means&nbsp;that the annual growth rate of nominal GDP during the period is stupendous 18 percent. Thus the energy challenge is of fundamental&nbsp;importance. In the last six decades, India&rsquo;s energy use has increased 16 times and the installed electricity capacity by 84 times. In&nbsp;2008, India&rsquo;s energy use was the fifth highest in the world.<br />Nevertheless, India as a country suffers from significant energy poverty and pervasive electricity deficits. In recent years, India&rsquo;s&nbsp;energy consumption has been increasing at a relatively fast rate due to population growth and economic development, even though&nbsp;the base rate may be somewhat low. With an economy projected to grow at 8-9% per annum, rapid urbanization and improving&nbsp;standards of living for millions of Indian households, the demand is likely to grow significantly. As per the estimates made in the&nbsp;Integrated Energy Policy Report of Planning Commission of India, 2006, if the country is to progress on the path of this sustained&nbsp;GDP growth rate during the next 25 years, it would imply quadrupling of its energy needs over 2003-04 levels with a six-fold&nbsp;increase in the requirement of electricity and a quadrupling in the requirement of crude oil. The supply challenge is of such&nbsp;magnitude that there are reasonable apprehensions that severe shortages may occur.</div>