Artículos de revistas
Emergy analysis of oil production from microalgae
Fecha
2012Registro en:
BIOMASS & BIOENERGY, OXFORD, v. 47, n. 8, supl. 1, Part 3, pp. 418-425, DEC, 2012
0961-9534
10.1016/j.biombioe.2012.09.016
Autor
Alves da Cruz, Rui Vogt
Oller do Nascimento, Claudio Augusto
Institución
Resumen
The use of microalgae and cyanobacteria for the production of biofuels and other raw materials is considered a very promising sustainable technology due to the high areal productivity, potential for CO2 fixation and use of non-arable land. The production of oil by microalgae in a large scale plant was studied using emergy analysis. The joint transformity calculated for the base scenario was 1.32E + 5 sej/J, the oil transformity was 3.51E + 5 sej/J, the emergy yield ratio (EYR) was 1.09 and environmental loading ratio was 11.10 and the emergy sustainability index (ESI) was 0.10, highlighting some of the key challenges for the technology such as high energy consumption during harvesting, raw material consumption and high capital and operation costs. Alternatives scenarios and the sensitivity to process improvements were also assessed, helping prioritize further research based on sustainability impact. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.