The WRC of solid biomass (E8a) is based on the estimated
water consumption of biomass production and refining [10]. In
Thailand, 19 plants produce ethanol, and their total capacity is
2.98 million liters per day: 67% from molasses, 26% from cassava,
and 7% from sugarcane [19]. The average water footprints of
molasses, cassava, and sugarcane ethanol production are 73.12 m3
water/GJ, 87.65 m3 water/GJ, and 52.05 m3 water/GJ, respectivley.[
14,19] Thus we estimated the WRC of bioethanol (E8b) as the
weighted average of these (we multiplied the average water
footprint by the relative capacity of that feedstock and then took
the sum of these values) under the assumption that the operated
plants utilized the whole production capacity. Thailand produces
biodiesel from palm oil, so we have used the water consumption
of palm oil-based biodiesel [10] as the WRC of biodiesel (E8c). The
WRC of biogas (E8d) is negligible because the process requires
only a very small amount of water compared to the other energy
transformations [10].