PONE-D-21-22104

Environmental sustainability assessment of biodiesel production from Jatropha curcas L. seeds oil in Pakistan

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Majid Hussain

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PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

Language of the MS needs improvement

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Reviewers' comments:

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: The manuscript “Environmental sustainability assessment of biodiesel production from Jatropha curcas L. seeds oil in Pakistan” provide the insight on the environmental impacts of the commercial scale JC biodiesel production. The paper is interesting and provide valuable information. This paper is “recommended for the publication” in the PLOS journal. However, few modifications are recommended prior to publication

• Careful revision of manuscript for formatting is recommended.

• It is recommended to provide the status of JC biodiesel production in Pakistan, as it would be useful for readers to understand the importance of this study from Pakistani perspective.

• In future assumption section, point c mentioned that soybean oil process data was consider for the analysis instead of JC oil data due to software limitations. In my opinion it would off set the parameters. Please justify this point.

• Please refer to page 7, line 175, the mentioned reference is not according to the recommended style.

• Please clarify the statement at page 9 from line 231-235, as in present form it is ambiguous.

• In manuscript it is recommended that 20% reduction in baseline fossil fuel, synthetic fertilizers, and electricity use provide significant results. It would be valuable if the impact of this condition on the JC biodiesel production is also mentioned.

• It is recommended to delete table 5 as this information was also provided in the text and this table does not provide any other significant information.

Reviewer #2: The MS submitted by Khanam et al., is focused on sustainability assessment of biodiesel production from Jatropha curcas seed oil in Pakistan using LCA.

1. Jatropha can be cultivated only on part of Pakistan, where country is heavily populated, how it can fulfill the requirement for biodiesel? Because previously Jatropha projects did not go successful in the neighbor country (India) of Pakistan due to lack of wasteland and higher cultivation costs

2. Are there any industries in Pakistan where Jatropha can be supplied as a feedstock of biodiesel?

3. Add some future directions/recommendations at the end of the abstract, purely based the findings of on your work

4. LCA of JC has been extensively studied, there

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10098-018-1558-7

Sustainability 2018, 10, 1451; doi:10.3390/su10051451

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1757-1707.2009.01014.x

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2012/623070/

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2012/623070/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096085241200185X

your findings are mostly similar to these previously published LCA-based studies on JC, what is the significance novelty of your work?

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Submitted filename: Reviewers Comments (PLOS-D-21-22104).docx

Environmental sustainability assessment of biodiesel production from Jatropha curcas L. seeds oil in Pakistan

PONE-D-21-22104R1

Dear Dr. Majid Hussain,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Muhammad Aamer Mehmood, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Please remove the column "Compartment" from the Tables provided as Supplementary material. The compartment information can be provided in the Table Caption, once. 

Reviewers' comments: