Global-Bio-Pact Case Studies

Global-Bio-Pact assesses the socio-economic impacts of various feedstock material and different conversion chains. The Global-Bio-Pact project has selected some of the conversion routes to further investigate their socio-economic impacts.

Apart from the general assessment of conversion chains, in-depth Case Studies are investigated. In order to work towards sustainable biomass production, concrete on-site examples showing main areas of concern are good measures to practically analyse relevant socio-economic issues of biomass production. This includes worst-case as well as best practice examples. Due to the focus on different bioproduct/biofuel life cycles in Global-Bio-Pact, the Case Studies create efficient interactions between socio-economic impacts analysis of biomass production and of biofuel/bioproduct conversion chains. Furthermore, environmental and trade aspects are investigated in the Case Studies as well as the implications in terms of sustainability and the applications of certification schemes.

The Case Studies are selected in order to balance the geographical distribution, feedstock sources, conversion technologies and products. The assessment focuses on existing conversion technologies since these are the current hotspots of socio-economic concern, but also include impacts of future technologies which are not yet commercially available.

The following five Case Studies were selected:

• Biodiesel from soy in Argentina
• Palm oil and biodiesel in Indonesia
• Jatropha oil and biodiesel in Tanzania
• Jatropha oil and biodiesel in Mali
• Bioethanol from sugarcane in Brazil
• Bioethanol from sugarcane in Costa Rica
• Lignocellulosic ethanol refinery in Canada

VAN EIJCK J., VIS M., FAAIJ A.
Socio-economic indicators identified by case studies - Evaluation of measurable socio-economic units and suggestions for future work
Utrecht University, The Netherlands; Report of the FP7 Global-Bio-Pact Project (FP7-245085) [download]