Oleaginous feedstocks for hydro-processed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) biojet production in southeastern Brazil: A multi-criteria decision analysis

This work establishes a ranking of the potential oleaginous feedstocks for HEFA biojet production in southeast Brazil, and consolidates their advantages and limitations, in order to assist in prioritizing strategic actions, such as research, R&D investment, and incentives for the most promising regional oilseeds. The oilseeds and the criteria considered were determined from a bibliographical review, using two multi-criteria tools in the evaluation: the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). The economic criterion and the oil cost sub-criterion were considered the determining factors for the choice of oilseeds, which obtained the following ranking: soybean, jatropha, sunflower, castor bean, macauba palm, cotton, and peanut. Soy-bean ranked first mainly because of the lower cost of its oil and high agricultural maturity. Hence, soybean should be used first in HEFA biojet production. However, considering that soybean oil is the main feedstock for biodiesel production in the country, it is also important to evaluate other potential crops. Thus, stimulating research aimed at reaching the technological domain of new local oleaginous plants is essential to increase the scale of production, reduce oil costs, and make HEFA production more competitive and sustainable. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.