Notes on life-cycle assessments of vegetable oils

Renewable resources like vegetable oils constitute a central element in the discussion of the implementation of a sustainable development. Vegetable o ils play an increasingly important part in the production of biodegradable materials. But considering the ecological effects of their production and u se vegetable oils show advantages and disadvantages. Life-cycle assessments (LCAs) allow a detailed evaluation of their ecological performance. Carryi ng out LCAs the determination of the methodological proceedings is required . It is one of the objectives of the present study to ascertain if, or how strong, these methodological determinations can influence the results of LC As. The LCA of refined rapeseed oil serves as an example. The following iss ues are of special interest here: the selection of a reference system, the balancing principles for coproducts, and the balancing principles for emiss ions under consideration of their site-specific impacts. Furthermore, the r esults for rapeseed oil and soybean oil are compared in order to find out i f LCAs for different vegetable oils show similar results (which would allow the undiscriminate transfer of the LCA results from one oil to another). F inally, the LCA results of rapeseed oil, that have been obtained for the cu rrently quantifiable parameters, are presented. As the study shows, the met hodological approach can influence the LCA results significantly. Therefore , it is necessary to define and document the applied methodological approac h carefully in order to base the LCA on verifiable facts and to obtain real istic results. The undiscriminate transfer of LCA results from one vegetabl e oil to another is not allowed because incorrect results are possible.