Energy and carbon balance of algal biofuel

Abstract

The worldwide business sector for biodiesel is balanced for unstable development in the following ten years. Advanced and mature technologies for alternative fuels production must be brought to the energy market getting competitive to a fossil fuel as soon as possible. Algae is outstanding among all the types of biomass sources (wood, energy crops, straw, fungi, etc.) in its ability to respond to the challenges of the future in terms of renewability, sustainability, availability, high growth and production rates, yield per unit area, being most suitable optimal sources for biofuels of the future and valuable co-products within biorefineries. It's well known that the application and benefits of specific algal biomass types are dependent on geographical location and climate conditions. One of the real alternatives for reducing process costs of algal biofuel production in the humid continental climate countries is to use synergistic energy solutions within entire production chain. An example of this could be the carbon dioxide (CO2) added to algae cultivation system in the form of flue gases as a carbon source from the industrial power stations. Opportunity to launch algae cultivation in coal-fired power plant of 50 MW capacity is analyzed in details with the energy and carbon balance model presented. Finally, key details for the algae-based carbon capture system have been summarized.