Life cycle analysis of milking of microalgae for renewable hydrocarbon production

Chaudry, S.ORCID: 0000-0003-1508-8626, Bahri, P.A.ORCID: 0000-0003-4661-5644 and Moheimani, N.R.ORCID: 0000-0003-2310-4147 (2019) Life cycle analysis of milking of microalgae for renewable hydrocarbon production. Computers & Chemical Engineering, 121 . pp. 510-522.

Abstract

Botryococcus braunii is a unique microalga which can repeatedly produce the hydrocarbons after their non-destructive extraction - the process called milking. Botryococcus braunii hydrocarbons can be converted to high-quality fuel or used as other high-value products. In this study, we conduct the life cycle analysis of the milking process for renewable hydrocarbon production focusing on the GHG emissions, the fossil energy consumption, the freshwater consumption and the land use of the process. The total-CO2 emissions and the GHG emissions over 100-year time span for production of B. braunii hydrocarbons were estimated to be -0.39 kg CO2-eq/kg hydrocarbons and -0.90 kg CO2-eq/kg hydrocarbons, respectively. The fossil energy ratio of the process was found to be 1.04 MJ produced/MJ fossil energy consumed. The fresh water consumption of the process and the land use were estimated to be 1802 kg/kg hydrocarbons and 0.85m2/kg of hydrocarbons, respectively.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Murdoch Affiliation(s):	Algae R&D Centre School of Engineering and Information Technology School of Veterinary and Life Sciences
Publisher:	Elsevier
Copyright:	© 2018 Elsevier Ltd.
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/42744

Item Control Page

Downloads