The water footprint of bioenergy
Open accessAbstract
All energy scenarios show a shift toward an increased percentage of renewable energy sources, including biomass. This study gives an overview of water footprints (WFs) of bioenergy from 12 crops that currently contribute the most to global agricultural production: barley, cassava, maize, potato, rapeseed, rice, rye, sorghum, soybean, sugar beet, sugar cane, and wheat. In addition, this study includes jatropha, a suitable energy crop. Since climate and production circumstances differ among regions, calculations have been performed by country. The WF of bioelectricity is smaller than that of biofuels because it is more efficient to use total biomass (e.g., for electricity or heat) than a fraction of the crop (its sugar, starch, or oil content) for biofuel. The WF of bioethanol appears to be smaller than that of biodiesel. For electricity, sugar beet, maize, and sugar cane are the most favorable crops [50 m 3 /gigajoule (GJ)]. Rapeseed and jatropha, typical energy crops, are disadvantageous (400 m 3 /GJ). For ethanol, sugar beet, and potato (60 and 100 m 3 /GJ) are the most advantageous, followed by sugar cane (110 m 3 /GJ); sorghum (400 m 3 /GJ) is the most unfavorable. For biodiesel, soybean and rapeseed show to be the most favorable WF (400 m 3 /GJ); jatropha has an adverse WF (600 m 3 /GJ). When expressed per L, the WF ranges from 1,400 to 20,000 L of water per L of biofuel. If a shift toward a greater contribution of bioenergy to energy supply takes place, the results of this study can be used to select the crops and countries that produce bioenergy in the most water-efficient way.
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Algae grown in open ponds have water requirements per unit area similar to cotton or wheat, but less than corn, to replenish water lost in evaporation.
“Perhaps surprisingly, algae grown in open ponds have water requirements per unit area similar to that of cotton or wheat, but less than that of corn, to replenish the water lost in evaporation (for an overview of water requirements of terrestrial plants used in biofuel production see [33]).”
From Biofuels from algae: Challenges and potential (2010) · cites this paper as [33]
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- Authors
- Gerbens-Leenes, W., Hoekstra, A. Y., & van der Meer, T. H.
- Affiliations
- Department of Water Engineering and Management and
- Laboratory of Thermal Engineering, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE, Enschede, The Netherlands
- ORCID
- Hoekstra, Arjen Y.
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2009-06-23
- Volume
- 106
- Issue
- 25
- Pages
- 10219-10223
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC2690604
- OpenAlex
- W2140082872
- Cited by
- 774
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 44 · 2020: 43 · 2019: 54 · 2018: 49 · 2017: 52 · 2016: 40 · 2015: 56 · 2014: 51 · 2013: 65 · 2012: 62
- FWCI
- 59.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University of Twente Research Information (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Bioenergy crop production and management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies
- Keywords
- water footprint, bioenergy, biofuels, bioelectricity, bioethanol, biodiesel, energy crops, Jatropha, crop water use, water efficiency, renewable energy, sugar beet, sugarcane, Brassica napus, soybean, maize, sorghum, potato, cassava, wheat, barley, rice, rye
- MeSH terms
- Ethanol, Electricity, Energy Metabolism, Energy-Generating Resources, Hot Temperature, Water, Crops, Agricultural
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