Social benefit cost and life cycle cost analysis of sustainable biodiesel bus transport in India

Abstract

This paper aims at analysing the utilisation of biodiesel for the case of bus rapid transit system (BRTS) in Ahmedabad, India, through the social benefit cost analysis (SBCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) tools. The SBCA and the LCCA have been performed for diesel and biodiesel blends B0, B5, B10, B15, B20, B30, B50 and B100. The study reveals that the overall social benefit cost ratio is close to 0.7 for diesel-based transit and can be marginally improved to 0.77 by adding biodiesel in various proportions. Given the easy transition of diesel-based transit to biodiesel-based transit coupled with improvement in benefit cost ratio, it is suggested to transition from diesel to biodiesel blended fuel. However, since the benefit cost ratio is less than 1.0, a need for alternative financial model development is identified. It is also deducted that the fuel conversion is one way to sustainable development, however, looking to the nature of social benefits; the step to development of BRTS instead of conventional bus transport can also aid sustainable development in a major way.

Keywords

• biodiesel
• biofuel
• social benefit cost analysis
• life cycle cost analysis
• sustainable transport