Techno-economic analysis of microalgal CO2-bioremediation from a West Australian coal-fired power station’s flue-gas

Marxsen, Blake (2020) Techno-economic analysis of microalgal CO2-bioremediation from a West Australian coal-fired power station’s flue-gas. Honours thesis, Murdoch University.

Abstract

Executive Summary
The increase in the use of typical renewable forms of power generation has lowered the dominance of traditional coal-fired baseload power generation for Australia’s south-western electricity grid known as the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) [2].This increase has prompted the retirement of two of the four operating units at Synergy's Muja Power Station located near the town of Collie from October 2022 [2]. Workers have been affected from the phasing out of Muja’s units although, having minimal impact on coal production [3]; thus, the greenhouse gas emission of CO2 will continue. There is a demand for a project which will promote employment in Collie as well as a decrease CO2 emission.

The following thesis investigates the techno-economics of microalgal CO2 bioremediation in order to create employment in Collie and decrease CO2 emissions from Bluewaters Power Station II (BPS). Four designs have been created assessing the ability of two microalgae strains grown in a variety of conditions, all under the influence of BPS’s bulk flue gas. Consultation with the Shire of Collie has aided in a multiple-criteria analysis to select the most suitable design presented as ‘Case 3’. Case 3 uses Bluewater Power Station’s human wastewater and freshwater from the Collie Basin to grow the freshwater microalgae strain Chlorella vulgaris. The Chlorella produced is then sold as a whole-biomass animal feed product at 12,000 USD/ metric tonne. Case 3 provides 37 jobs for Collie as well as decreasing the carbon emission of BPS.

Item Type:	Thesis (Honours)
Murdoch Affiliation(s):	Engineering and Energy
Supervisor(s):	Bahri, Parisa and Moheimani, Navid
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/58804

Item Control Page

Downloads