Life Cycle Assessment of Utilizing Bio-Oil to Reduce the Carbon Footprint on the Yangtze River Mainline: A Case Study of Container Ships

In the context of ecological protection and strict emissions control, the replacement of traditional energy sources with clean energy has become a new direction for the development of the shipping industry. Bio-oil is beneficial to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air pollutants. In this study, life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost assessment (LCCA) are conducted to evaluate the environmental and economic impacts of diesel and bio-oil as fuel for container ships in the Yangtze River mainline. The results show that compared with diesel, the total greenhouse gas emission is 34.58% lower than diesel, and the total cost is 8.22% higher than that of diesel throughout the whole life cycle of these two fuels. Both LCA results and LCCA results show that bio-oil is an ideal clean energy source. In addition, the abundant raw material resources of bio-oil make it a reliable alternative, which is also of great significance.