Life-cycle Water Quantity and Water Quality Implications of Biofuels

Abstract Water consumption and water quality continue to be key factors affecting environmental sustainability in biofu-el production. This review covers the findings from biofuel water analyses published over the past 2 years to underscore the progress made, and to highlight advancements in under-standing the interactions among increased production and water demand, water resource availability, and potential changes in water quality. We focus on two key areas: water footprint assessment and watershed modeling. Results re-vealed that miscanthus-, switchgrass-, and forest wood-based biofuels all have promising blue and grey water footprints. Alternative water resources have been explored for algae production, and challenges remain. A most noticeable im-provement in the analysis of life-cycle water consumption is the adoption of geospatial analysis and watershed modeling to generate a spatially explicit water footprint at a finer scale (e.g., multi-state region, state, and county scales) to address the impacts of land use change and climate on the water footprint in a landscape with a mixed biofuel feedstock