Sustainability of Methylic and Ethylic Biodiesel Production Routes: Social and Environmental Impacts Via Multi-Criteria and Principal Component Analys

Sustainability of Methylic and Ethylic Biodiesel Production Routes: Social and Environmental Impacts via Multi-criteria and Principal Component Analyses using Brazilian Case Studies presents an innovative quantitative methodology for the assessment of the social and environmental sustainability of methylic and ethylic production routes. Based on extensive real-world applications in the Brazilian bioenergy sector, the book offers a unique perspective on the social and environmental impacts of biodiesel production chains.

The book explains the key steps in assessing the social and environmental impacts of biofuel production chains, including an overview of biodiesel properties and its production chains, common metrics for environmental, social, and economic impacts, detailed methodologies for data collection and analysis, and new analytical techniques. Multi-Criteria Sustainability Analyses provide a quantitative analysis of ethylic and methylic production routes. A Principal Component Analysis is presented and is used to explain sustainability indicator variabilities and detect similarities among different classes of sustainability indicators. Techno-economic considerations are also fully explored within the context of the socio-environmental impacts. Finally, several appendices provide readers with MATLAB codes for solving Principal Component Analysis and Multi-Criterial Sustainability Analysis problems in the context of biodiesel chains or in the context of agronomy and agronomics.

Offering a unique and quantitative toolkit, Sustainability of Methylic and Ethylic Biodiesel Production Routes: Social and Environmental Impacts via Multi-criteria and Principal Component Analyses using Brazilian Case Studies is an invaluable reference for anyone working on biofuels and bioenergy, including scientific, technical, management, social, environmental and policy professionals. The book also provides valuable analytical tools to support graduate student training.