The Significance of Forests and Algae in CO 2 Balance: A Hungarian Case Study

Attila Bai, József Popp, Károly Pető, Irén Szőke, Mónika Harangi-Rákos and Zoltán Gabnai
Additional contact information
Attila Bai: Institute of Business Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Debrecen, Böszörményi Street 138, H-4032 Debrecen, Hungary
József Popp: Institute of Sectoral Economics and Methodology, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Debrecen, Böszörményi Street 138, H-4032 Debrecen, Hungary
Károly Pető: Institute of Rural Development, Tourism and Sports Management, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Debrecen, Böszörményi Street 138, H-4032 Debrecen, Hungary
Irén Szőke: Institute of Business Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Debrecen, Böszörményi Street 138, H-4032 Debrecen, Hungary
Mónika Harangi-Rákos: Institute of Sectoral Economics and Methodology, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Debrecen, Böszörményi Street 138, H-4032 Debrecen, Hungary
Zoltán Gabnai: Institute of Business Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Debrecen, Böszörményi Street 138, H-4032 Debrecen, Hungary

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 5, 1-24

Abstract: This study presents the sequestration and emissions of forests and algae related to CO 2 while providing a comparison to other biomass sources (arable crops, short rotation coppices). The goal of the paper is to analyze the impact of the current CO 2 balance of forests and the future prospects for algae. Our calculations are based on data, not only from the literature but, in the case of algae, from our own previous experimental work. It was concluded that the CO 2 sequestration and natural gas saving of forests is typically 3.78 times higher than the emissions resulting from the production technology and from the burning process. The economic and environmental protection-related efficiency operate in opposite directions. The CO 2 sequestration ability of algae can primarily be utilized when connected to power plants. The optimal solution could be algae production integrated with biogas power plants, since plant sizes are smaller and algae may play a role, not only in the elimination of CO 2 emissions and the utilization of heat but also in wastewater purification.

Keywords: forest; algae; carbon dioxide; sequestration; emissions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/5/857/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/5/857/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:5:p:857-:d:99186

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().