TY - JOUR
T1 - Production efficiency and cost reduction potential of biodiesel fuel plants using waste cooking oil in Japan
AU - Ogata, Mari
AU - Nakaishi, Tomoaki
AU - Takayabu, Hirotaka
AU - Eguchi, Shogo
AU - Kagawa, Shigemi
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to the editor and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments and suggestion. This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (Grant number JP20H00081) and the Kyushu University Platform of Inter-/Transdisciplinary Energy Research. [Support Program for Doctoral Students AY 2020].
Funding Information:
We are grateful to the editor and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments and suggestion. This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (Grant number JP20H00081 ) and the Kyushu University Platform of Inter-/Transdisciplinary Energy Research. [Support Program for Doctoral Students AY 2020 ].
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2023/4/1
Y1 - 2023/4/1
N2 - Biodiesel fuel (BDF) is a potentially carbon-neutral fuel that could play a potentially important role in preventing global warming. However, its high production cost poses a challenge for many BDF producers. To establish an efficient method for BDF production and increase its cost competitiveness, the production efficiencies of 35 BDF plants in Japan, which produce BDF from waste cooking oil, were evaluated. Moreover, the cost reduction potential associated with improved efficiency was estimated. The empirical analysis revealed that (1) approximately 92% of the BDF plants have inefficient production; (2) they exhibit two predominant types of inefficiencies, technical and scale inefficiencies, and (3) improvement of production inefficiency can lead to an average production cost reduction of 3.52 yen per liter of BDF. To increase the production efficiency, it is important to improve the quality of the waste cooking oil used and increase the production scale. It is recommended that operators of inefficient BDF plants learn the production activities of the most efficient plants identified in this study. Furthermore, government policies focused on efficient BDF plants are essential to increase BDF production with limited resources.
AB - Biodiesel fuel (BDF) is a potentially carbon-neutral fuel that could play a potentially important role in preventing global warming. However, its high production cost poses a challenge for many BDF producers. To establish an efficient method for BDF production and increase its cost competitiveness, the production efficiencies of 35 BDF plants in Japan, which produce BDF from waste cooking oil, were evaluated. Moreover, the cost reduction potential associated with improved efficiency was estimated. The empirical analysis revealed that (1) approximately 92% of the BDF plants have inefficient production; (2) they exhibit two predominant types of inefficiencies, technical and scale inefficiencies, and (3) improvement of production inefficiency can lead to an average production cost reduction of 3.52 yen per liter of BDF. To increase the production efficiency, it is important to improve the quality of the waste cooking oil used and increase the production scale. It is recommended that operators of inefficient BDF plants learn the production activities of the most efficient plants identified in this study. Furthermore, government policies focused on efficient BDF plants are essential to increase BDF production with limited resources.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117284
DO - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117284
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85146278796
SN - 0301-4797
VL - 331
JO - Journal of Environmental Management
JF - Journal of Environmental Management
M1 - 117284
ER -