Greenhouse gas sequestration by algae. Energy and greenhouse gas life cycle studies - Proceedings of the 6th Australian Conference on Life Cycle Assessment

Mar 2009

This paper assesses the greenhouse gas, costs and energy balance on a life cycle basis for algae grown in salt water ponds and used to produce biodiesel and electricity.
Under the conditions described and data assumed in the paper, it is shown that it is possible to produce algal biodiesel at less cost and with a substantial greenhouse gas and energy balance advantage over fossil diesel.
The report cautions that translating science into continuous commercial-scale production has not yet been achieved with algae, but also pointed out that algae farms can create up to 37 jobs per 1,000 acres in algae production, and determined that a plant of that size could be economically feasible.

By: P. K. Campbell, T. Beer, D. Batten

 
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