Assessment of algae biodiesel viability based on area requirement

Abstract

The current feedstocks used to produce biodiesel are unviable to replace the diesel consumption because of the land used in their cultivation and one proposed solution is the use of algae which have a higher productivity per area. With this in mind, the total superficial area (water and land) required to produce algae biodiesel for three specific cases – EU, US, and Brazil – was calculated based in: future diesel and biodiesel demand, current biodiesel production, international policies and targets, and specific data of algae productivity in several scenarios from the literature.

The study indicates that productivity effects significantly the results and the current commercial cultivation at open ponds are not viable for scale up, so a minimum of productivity needs to be achieved. Microalgae cultivated in photobioreactors and macroalgae present a great potential and their capability to be located offshore is an advantage. In light of this, it was concluded that it is possible to reach the targets required by policies and replace diesel fuel using the current available area locally in the studied cases.