The sustainability of Jatropha biodiesel production in Southwest China

Biodiesel is an ideal alternative to fossil fuels. To ensure sustainable development, the Chinese government and relevant market entities have conducted in-depth research and production practices on Jatropha biodiesel South -west China for over a decade. However, few integrated and dynamic assessments of the sustainability of biodiesel projects have been conducted. Therefore, in this study, we constructed an integrated sustainability evaluation system (ISES) for Jatropha biodiesel projects, that applies the inclusive wealth (IW) and system dynamics (SD) modeling approach to analyze the integrated sustainability of Jatropha biodiesel projects. The results showed that: (1) the launch of the Jatropha biofuel project increased the IW by 826 million yuan; (2) the inclusive invest-ment that represents the sustainability trends of the project was commonly positive, and the IW at the end of the project accumulated to about 29 billion yuan; and (3) the sensitivity analysis showed that the stable unit output and biodiesel output rate have a sensitive positive effect on inclusive investment. Finally, policy recommenda-tions to promote the sustainable development of biodiesel production are proposed. (c) 2023 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Biodiesel is being researched and produced in China to ensure its sustainable development. However, there has been a lack of comprehensive and dynamic assessments of the sustainability of biodiesel projects. This study constructed an integrated sustainability evaluation system using inclusive wealth and system dynamics modeling, and provided policy recommendations for promoting the sustainable development of biodiesel production.