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dc.contributor.authorGao, Xiangpeng
dc.contributor.authorYu, Yun
dc.contributor.authorWu, Hongwei
dc.date.accessioned2017-01-30T11:15:02Z
dc.date.available2017-01-30T11:15:02Z
dc.date.created2013-12-11T04:18:00Z
dc.date.issued2013
dc.identifier.citationGao, Xiangpeng and Yu, Yun and Wu, Hongwei. 2013. Life Cycle Energy and Carbon Footprints of Microalgal Biodiesel Production in Western Australia: A Comparison of Byproducts Utilization Strategies. ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering. 1 (11): pp. 1371-1380.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/9809
dc.identifier.doi10.1021/sc4002406
dc.description.abstract

This study compares the performances of anaerobic digestion and hydrothermal liquefaction as byproducts (defatted microalgae and glycerol) utilization strategies to offset overall life cycle energy and carbon footprints of microalgal biodiesel production in Western Australian (WA). Utilization of byproducts via anaerobic digestion or hydrothermal liquefaction enables the production of electricity and process heat, as well as the recovery of inherent nutrients. As a result, the anaerobic digestion route and hydrothermal liquefaction route substantially reduce life cycle energy inputs for producing 1 MJ biodiesel from 4.3 MJ (without byproducts utilization) to 1.3 and 0.7 MJ, yielding carbon footprints of ~80 and ~33 g CO2-eq/MJ biodiesel, respectively. The results indicate that hydrothermal liquefaction, which shows better life cycle performance and requires smaller reactor footprint than anaerobic digestion, can be another potential strategy to recover energy embedded in defatted microalgae. It is also evident that while vast coastal areas are available in WA for marine microalgaecultivation, further technological advances are required to realize a truly sustainable biodiesel production from microalgae. Sensitivity analyses suggest that key R&D areas are improvement of microalgae biological properties (e.g., growth rate and lipid content) and innovations in engineering designs (e.g., culture circulation velocity, methane yield during anaerobic digestion, and bio-oil yield during hydrothermal liquefaction).

dc.publisherAmerican Chemical Society
dc.subjectHydrothermal liquefaction
dc.subjectMicroalgae
dc.subjectGlycerol
dc.subjectLife cycle analysis
dc.subjectBiodiesel
dc.subjectBiochar
dc.subjectBioslurry
dc.subjectBio-oil
dc.subjectAnaerobic digestion
dc.subjectBiomass
dc.titleLife Cycle Energy and Carbon Footprints of Microalgal Biodiesel Production in Western Australia: A Comparison of Byproducts Utilization Strategies
dc.typeJournal Article
dcterms.source.volume1
dcterms.source.startPage1371
dcterms.source.endPage1380
dcterms.source.issn2168-0485
dcterms.source.titleACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering
curtin.department
curtin.accessStatusFulltext not available


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