A review on life cycle assessment of biogas production: Challenges and future perspectives in Malaysia

This paper provides a comprehensive review of 48 studies on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of biogas production from 2006 to 2018 (13 years). The scope of the study, type of feedstock and impact categories used in the reviewed studies were discussed. Although various studies have been carried out to assess the efficiency and potential of wastes for biogas production, however, little attention has been paid particularly in the developing countries to conduct comprehensive analysis related to the environmental performance of biogas generation based on the LCA methodology. In Malaysia, the utilization of palm oil mill effluent (POME) as the source of energy has recently been expanded due to its abundant production at the palm oil mills. Therefore, this paper also highlights and discusses the feasibility of LCA approach on biogas production from POME as well as the opportunities and challenges from the Malaysian perspective.