Comparative life cycle assessment of five different vegetable oils
Muñoz I, Schmidt J, Dalgaard R (2014)
Publication info
Poster presented at the 9th International Conference LCA of Food San Francisco, USA 8-10 October 2014
Abstract
The purpose of this work was to evaluate from cradle to gate the environmental performance of five vegetable oils: palm oil, soybean oil, rapeseed oil, sunflower oil and peanut oil, using a consequential approach and including indirect land use change. The impact assessment focused on greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, land use and water consumption. For GHG emissions, rapeseed oil and sunflower oil were the best performing ones, followed by soybean oil and palm oil and with peanut oil as the oil with the highest impact. Focusing on water consumption, sunflower oil was the oil with the smallest impact, followed by rapeseed oil, palm oil and soybean oil, and with peanut oil as the oil with the largest contribution. Regarding land use, palm oil and soybean oil were the oils associated with the smallest contribu-tion, followed by rapeseed oil, and with sunflower oil and peanut oil as the oils with the largest net occupation of land.