Net Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emission Evaluation of Biodiesel Derived from Microalgae

Batan, Liaw; Quinn, Jason C.; Willson, Bryan; Bradley, Thomas H.

doi:10.1021/es102052y

Cited by 312 publications

(196 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…In the Highly Productive Case, the required amounts of these resources are more manageable, but still large. Batan et al [27] and Pate et al [18] present similar results, also showing that present algal bio-oil production technology would be constrained by carbon, nitrogen, and electricity requirements.…”

Section: Resource Requirements For 5 Bgal/yr Of Algal Bio-oilmentioning

confidence: 64%

“…Several other studies have presented hypothetical energy analyses of algal biofuel production, and although the scope and systems evaluated vary, each of these studies has also found that without discounted inputs, the EROI is not competitive with conventional fuels [11,15,17,27,38]. The 2 nd O EROI results from this study are plotted in Figure 2, along with the first-order EROI, which only includes direct energy inputs (and thereby neglects energy embedded in material inputs).…”

Section: Energy Return On Investment For Algal Biofuelmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…The ability to utilize discounted inputs, such as waste forms of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus and cheap energy inputs, would further improve the return on investment for producing algal biofuels with respect to the Highly Productive Case [11,14,[25][26][27][28]. The Highly Productive Case is not intended to represent the optimum scenario for algal biofuels nor is it presented as the final arbiter of the fuel's prospects for success; rather, it is intended to serve as a useful benchmark.…”

Section: Highly Productive Casementioning

confidence: 99%

“…To compare the Highly Productive Case with advanced algal biofuel production systems, the main assumptions of the Highly Productive Case are shown in Table 5. [3], 0.25 [11], 0.02 [14], 0.5 [27], 0.18-0.39 [17], 0.2-0.35 [46], 0.3 [58], 0.5 [59], 0.23 [60], 0.44 [61], 0.25 [62], 0.15 [63], 0.21-0.25 [57], 0.16-0.75 [64] Mixing Energy (J/L-d) 100…”

Section: Current Feasibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(1) using waste and recycled nutrients (e.g., waste water and animal waste) [11,15,[25][26][27][28]65,71,72]; (2) using waste heat and flue-gas from industrial plants [44,59], carbon in wastewater [28], or developing energy-efficient means of using atmospheric CO 2 ; (3) developing ultra-productive algal strains (e.g., genetically modified organisms) [73][74][75]; (4) minimizing pumping [58,76,77]; (5) establishing energy-efficient water treatment and recycling methods [55]; (6) employing energy-efficient harvesting methods, such as chemical flocculation [66,78,79], and (7) avoiding separation via distillation.…”

Section: Innovation Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comprehensive Evaluation of Algal Biofuel Production: Experimental and Target Results

et al. 2012

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Worldwide, algal biofuel research and development efforts have focused on increasing the competitiveness of algal biofuels by increasing the energy and financial return on investments, reducing water intensity and resource requirements, and increasing algal productivity. In this study, analyses are presented in each of these areas-costs, resource needs, and productivity-for two cases: (1) an Experimental Case, using mostly measured data for a lab-scale system, and (2) a theorized Highly Productive Case that represents an optimized commercial-scale production system, albeit one that relies on full-price water, nutrients, and carbon dioxide. For both cases, the analysis described herein concludes that the energy and financial return on investments are less than 1, the water intensity is greater than that for conventional fuels, and the amounts of required resources OPEN ACCESSEnergies 2012, 5 1944 at a meaningful scale of production amount to significant fractions of current consumption (e.g., nitrogen). The analysis and presentation of results highlight critical areas for advancement and innovation that must occur for sustainable and profitable algal biofuel production can occur at a scale that yields significant petroleum displacement. To this end, targets for energy consumption, production cost, water consumption, and nutrient consumption are presented that would promote sustainable algal biofuel production. Furthermore, this work demonstrates a procedure and method by which subsequent advances in technology and biotechnology can be framed to track progress.

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Section: Resource Requirements For 5 Bgal/yr Of Algal Bio-oilmentioning

confidence: 64%

Section: Energy Return On Investment For Algal Biofuelmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Highly Productive Casementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Current Feasibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Innovation Pathwaysmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Comprehensive Evaluation of Algal Biofuel Production: Experimental and Target Results

et al. 2012

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Biomass and Bioenergy

Botha

Moore

2013

Sugarcane: Physiology, Biochemistry, and Functional Biology

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From ancient times, plant biomass has been combusted to produce heat. As ages passed, heat was harnessed for producing steam to run engines and generate electricity. Over the last century, a dramatic shift has occurred in the use of plant biomass toward the production of liquid fuels. This shift has accelerated in recent decades to meet the global agendas of providing energy security and confronting climate change.There is no doubt that there will be an increasing demand for renewable plant biomass in Earth's future energy economy. Creating biomass as biofuel feedstocks will be achieved by increasing the energy yield of the target crops per area land (GJ/hectare/year; GJ ha −1 yr −1 ) and by improving conversion technologies to exploit the energy captured in the biomass. The latter implies better use of the lignocellulosic component of biomass and development of better pretreatment, extraction, and fermentation technologies.Two major challenges remain in creating renewable bioenergy: first, there must be a net energy gain during feedstock production, and second, greenhouse gas emissions from the green energy must be lower than those from fossil fuels.Centuries-old sugarcane industries have developed advanced technologies in all aspects of growing and processing the crop. Sugarcane is produced for its sugary juice that can be concentrated to produce crystalline sucrose, which is used as a sweetener, and molasses, which can be fermented to produce alcohol. The sugar in the juice can also be fermented to bioethanol. The fibrous plant residue (bagasse) produced from this process is mostly combusted in boiler systems to provide heat and steam to drive the mills and generate electricity. Future pretreatment or gasification of the bagasse will produce much higher energy yields. Recovery of energy from bagasse is one of the major reasons that sugarcane has a higher net energy ratio (output/input) than many other crops and is projected to increase further.Genetic variation in sugarcane germplasm collections for fiber content and total biomass yield plus an evolving better understanding of the factors that currently limit sugarcane biomass yield would suggest that much more progress will be made to improve sugarcane bioenergy yields.In many ways Saccharum hybrids (whether used to produce sugar or energy) are among the best candidates as biofuel feedstocks. Sugarcane has a well-established agricultural production system and a well-developed logistics and processing infrastructure. More importantly, it has a positive net energy balance and releases considerably less CO 2 when used to produce transport fuel than petroleum.

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Production of Biodiesel from Various Sources

Saxena

Sharma

Agrawal

et al. 2013

Biofuels Production

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We all are aware that the depletion of the fossil fuel reservoirs has lead to an urgent search for alternative forms of present day fuels. The possible solution could come from biofuels, especially biodiesel. Biodiesel could be produced from plants, microorganisms, fungi, wastewater, microalgae etc., but these sources suffer from one or more drawbacks. However, microalgae could serve as the best source for biodiesel production since it does not lead to a land versus fuel confl ict. This chapter is mainly focused on the sources for the production of biodiesel, biodiesel production processes, catalysis involved and the factors affecting biodiesel production. We have to understand that for the best utilization of biodiesel in diesel engines, we have to incorporate technical modifi cations in traditional diesel engines so that biodiesel production could be promoted commercially.

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Net Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emission Evaluation of Biodiesel Derived from Microalgae

Cited by 312 publications

References 66 publications

Comprehensive Evaluation of Algal Biofuel Production: Experimental and Target Results

Comprehensive Evaluation of Algal Biofuel Production: Experimental and Target Results

Biomass and Bioenergy

Production of Biodiesel from Various Sources

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