Washington, Apr 24 (ANI): Bio-diesel could increase rather than reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional diesel, a new study published in the journal Chemistry & Industry has revealed.

According to the study, the uptake of bio-diesel will not make any difference to global warming, but rather result in potentially greater emissions of greenhouse gases than from conventional petroleum derived diesel.

As part of the study, analysts at SRI Consulting compared the emissions of greenhouse gases by the two fuels across their overall life cycles from production to combustion in cars.

The results showed that bio-diesel derived from rapeseed grown on dedicated farmland emitted nearly the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions (defined as CO2 equivalents) per km driven as conventional diesel.

However, if the land used for growing rapeseed was used to grow trees, petroleum diesel would emit only a third of the CO2 equivalent emissions as biodiesel.

The study said that while petroleum diesel emitted 85 percent of its greenhouse gases at the final stage, when burnt in the engine; by contrast, two-thirds of the emissions produced by rapeseed derived bio-diesel (RME) occurred during farming of the crop, when cropland emitted nitrous oxide (N2O), otherwise known as laughing gas, which was about 200-300 times as potent a greenhouse gas as CO2. (ANI)