Environmental assessment of biomass to biofuels: biochemical conversion routes

In the context of climate change and raising concerns regarding negative impacts on the environment, there is a growing interest in moving away from fossil energy to renewable options such as bioenergy produced from biofuels. These biofuels can be produced from biomass following a number of production processes. This chapter describes the technologies involved in such processes to produce the two most widely used biofuels: biogas and bioethanol. Additionally, it presents the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology to calculate the environmental impact of biofuels over their entire life cycle and compare it with that of conventional fuels. The main key performance indicators used in LCA studies of biofuels are also explained and illustrated with results from previous studies. Finally, the product environmental footprint is described, and its potential to guide LCA studies of biofuels is discussed.