Land is a limiting factor for biomass production. Moreover, land use change for expanded agriculture may lead to increased GHG emissions and a loss of biodiversity. Most of the currently used crops for biofuels are also food crops. Global land use for the production of fuel crops recently covered about 2% of global cropland (about 36 Mha in 2008). This development is driven by volume targets rather than by land use planning. The extension of cropland for biofuel production is continuing.
This study applies the LCA technique based on the ISO 14040 series standard in order to achieve its objectives.The aim of this study is to identify and quantify the potential environmental impacts and to perform an environmental life cycle assessment to evaluate impacts of bio-ethanol production on the environment .To model and construct maps showing bio-ethanol impacts on the environment (predict future trends using MAXent)