Abstract
The commercialization of biofuels produced from microalgae is in its infancy; therefore, many resource-management practices and production processes are still flexible. The purpose of this paper is to guide development of supply chains toward more environmentally sustainable practices. We review current and projected technologies and practices for autotrophic microalgae cultivation that promote environmental sustainability. We develop a framework that leverages these studies to propose better management practices (BMPs) for water quality and quantity, biodiversity, or greenhouse gas emissions in concert with productivity and profitability considerations. Some proposed BMPs are linked to numerical environmental targets, such as percent reductions in nutrient loadings to streams, whereas others seek to avoid thresholds leading to adverse health or ecological effects. Still others involve using the best available technologies, developed iteratively through life-cycle and techno-economic analyses. Proposed BMPs for microalgae cultivation focus on water quality and quantity, as well as improving greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to obtain advanced biofuel designation. BMPs must allow producers to meet productivity and profitability targets, as well as environmental targets. These example BMPs characterize the state of science and engineering; thus, they will change over time.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 125150 |
| Journal | Journal of Cleaner Production |
| Volume | 289 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 20 2021 |
Funding
We thank Val Smith, Melanie Mayes, Molly Pattullo, Ryan Davis, Mark Wigmosta, André Coleman, Virginia Dale, Pat Ahlm, Ron Chance, and Devinn Lambert for useful discussions over the past several years, and the latter for project sponsorship. We thank Brett Guge for assistance. Funding for this work was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office. Mandal is thankful to the Department of Biotechnology, India, for a Ramalingaswami Fellowship. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ). We thank Val Smith, Melanie Mayes, Molly Pattullo, Ryan Davis, Mark Wigmosta, Andr? Coleman, Virginia Dale, Pat Ahlm, Ron Chance, and Devinn Lambert for useful discussions over the past several years, and the latter for project sponsorship. We thank Brett Guge for assistance. Funding for this work was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office. Mandal is thankful to the Department of Biotechnology, India, for a Ramalingaswami Fellowship. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).
Keywords
- Algae cultivation
- Biodiesel
- Bioenergy
- Environmental effects
- Microalgae
- Water