Is it sustainable the production of biofuels in large scale? The case of biodiesel in Argentina

Abstract

The possibility of fossil fuels exhaustion has led to search for sources of alternative energy, based onrenewable resources. In Argentina, biodiesel is considered the most favorable alternative due to high levels of production of oil seed crops. Nevertheless, the evaluation of the production of biofuel at great scale requires a holistic analysis to evaluate its consequence for agroecosystems sustainability. Crop surface demand and energetic efficiency of biodiesel production with soybean, oilseedrape, cotton and sunflower crops were evaluated. The energetic efficiency was very lower than 1 in soybean and cotton crops, near 1 in oilseed rape and slightly higher than 1 in sunflower. The crop surface need to produce all the necessary biodiesel for fulfill our country demand is two fold the actual annual crop surface. This implies the expansion of the agricultural frontier or the change in land use patterns with negative environmental and social consequences. In conclusion, under the actual agriculture model, based on high inputs it is not possible that biodiesel can replace fossil fuels because it is not sustainable in a longtime.