Global food transportation decarbonization through wastes-derived biofuels based on a food system internal loop

Biofuels produced from food system wastes offer a promising way to substitute fossil fuels in food transportation and decarbonize both food and transportation sectors. Country-specific wastes inventories remain to be combined with biofuel conversion pathways to unravel the decarbonization potentials in global food transportation. Herein, we design a food system internal loop and quantify multi-path biofuel production from used cooking oil and crop residues across 130 countries to evaluate effects on fossil fuel substitution and carbon dioxide emission reductions. Road transportation dominates fossil fuel demands (80.7%) and emissions (79.5%) in food transportation. China and the United States excel in production of biofuels from two sources. Maximum production of both types of biofuels reaches 0.41 and 38.77 exajoules, respectively. Utilizing all available used cooking oil and less than 20% of crop residues could completely satisfy food transportation fuel demands in most countries while mitigating emissions by 174.9 million tons (around 70%). Decarbonization during food transportation can be achieved globally through internal loop-based reprocessing of food system waste like used cooking oil and crop residues.