Energy-input analysis of the life-cycle of microalgal cultivation systems and best scenario for oil-rich biomass production

Said Abu-Ghosh, Dror Fixler, Zvy Dubinsky and David Iluz

Applied Energy, 2015, vol. 154, issue C, 1082-1088

Abstract: An energy-input analysis of the life-cycle of microalgal cultivation systems was performed to study the oil-rich biomass production from fast-growing microalgae, for biodiesel production purposes. We estimated and compared the energy demands for the algal biomass cultivation in open-ponds (OP) with that required in closed-system photobioreactors (PBR) based on the new technologies. We also present the best microalgal candidates that show the highest biomass productivity and lipid yield indoors (laboratory scale), and discuss their potential to be used for full-scale biodiesel production. The results show that the energy requirements are highly dependent on the final mass concentration and/or using industrial wastes, with PBR cultivation being the largest energy consumer. Our offered scenario to minimize energy inputs and to increase algal-oil yields considers the most ideal cases, which could be the most promising model for energy-efficient biofuel production. Although biodiesel production by any of these systems is still not economically competitive with fossil fuel, recent suggestions on how to increase the efficiency of both systems are discussed, based on our energy-input assessment, with a critical evaluation of all stages for large-scale production of oil-rich microalgal biomass.

Keywords: Biodiesel; Energy-input; Microalgae biotechnology; Oil-rich biomass; Photobioreactor; Scenario (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030626191500272X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:154:y:2015:i:c:p:1082-1088

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.02.086

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().