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Sustainable Development of Algal Biofuels in the United States (2012) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix G: Economics of Coproduct Production from Large-Scale Algal Biofuels Systems
Pages 227-232

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From page 227...
... The value of coproduct is unlikely to drop indefinitely with increase in scale and could have an asymptotic function. For materials intended to sell into the massive fuels market, coproduct volumes swell rapidly with the scaling of fuel production unless a wide variety of coproducts for different markets are produced.
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From page 228...
... This is true both for fuel components and coproducts. The dotted line shows Szmant's original curve and the solid line is inflation corrected to 2010.
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From page 229...
... Negative slopes indicate that fuel is still the most valuable component. Potentially difficult to see, the $200/ton line falls on top of the blue line representing the base case with all nutrients and power production.
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From page 230...
... Discontinuation of the recycle of nutrients from the algal biomass remaining after lipid extraction and elimination of power generation, as would be the case if this was put to other use without returning a revenue stream, requires that additional power and nutrients be purchased, effectively raising the price for sale of the algal biofuel. This is shown as the red line in Figure G-2 and represents an unrealistic, but instructive, case where the value in the residual biomass is not captured.
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From page 231...
... Coproduction of fuel and other products has limited potential and is not a solution to improving economics of widespread and large-scale deployment of algal biofuels. REFERENCES Davis, R., A
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Key Terms

  • lipid fraction
  • coproduct sales
  • algal biofuel
  • fuel production
  • biofuel production

  • algal biofuels
  • power law
  • coproduct value
  • fuels market
  • total value

  • power generation
  • economic benefit
  • sales price
  • fuel price
  • blue line

  • potential concerns
  • excess power
  • materials intended
  • renewable energy
  • monly suggested

  • algal species
  • line falls
  • law relationship
  • anaerobic digestion
  • fuel produced

  • reference pathway
  • alternative values
  • volumes swell
  • price curve
  • lipid extraction


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