Life-cycle analysis and the ecology of biofuels
Abstract
Biofuels have been proposed as an ecologically benign alternative to fossil fuels. There is, however, considerable uncertainty in the scientific literature about their ecological benefit. Here, we review studies that apply life-cycle analysis (LCA), a computational tool for assessing the efficiency and greenhouse gas (GHG) impact of energy systems, to biofuel feedstocks. Published values for energy efficiency and GHG differ significantly even for an individual species, and we identify three major sources of variation in these LCA results. By providing new information on biogeochemistry and plant physiology, ecologists and plant scientists can increase the accuracy of LCA for biofuel production systems.
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The level of N in the soil that was maintained over 10 years in this study suggests that miscanthus needs little or no fertilizer inputs, and this is consistent with the conclusions of a body of prior research.
“The level of N in the soil that was maintained over 10 years in this study suggests that miscanthus needs little or no fertilizer inputs, and this is consistent with the conclusions of a body of prior research (Anderson etal.,2011; Clifton- Brown etal.,2007; Davis et al., 2009; Heaton et al., 2010; Lewandowski etal.,2000; Parrish etal.,2021; Strullu etal.,2011).”
From Decadal change in soil carbon and nitrogen with a <i>Miscanthus</i> × <i>giganteus</i> crop on abandoned agricultural land in southeast Ohio (2024) · cites this paper as Davis et al., 2009
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References 37 · Cited by 262
- Authors
- Davis, S. C., Anderson-Teixeira, K. J., & DeLucia, E. H.
- Affiliations
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Corresponding author
- DeLucia, Evan H.
- Venue
- Trends in Plant Science
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2009-03
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 140-146
- ISSN
- 1360-1385 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2026341461
- Cited by
- 262
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 31 · 2013: 26 · 2012: 21
- FWCI
- 3.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Trends in Plant Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Energy Biosciences Institute
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Bioenergy crop production and management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Biofuel production and bioconversion
- Keywords
- biofuels, life cycle assessment, greenhouse gas emissions, biofuel feedstock, energy efficiency, biogeochemistry, plant physiology, alternative fuels
- MeSH terms
- Bioelectric Energy Sources, Ecology, Plants
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Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
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