title: Life-cycle assessment of microalgae culture coupled to biogas production.
abstract: Due to resource depletion and climate change, lipid-based algal biofuel has been pointed out as an interesting alternative because of the high productivity of algae per hectare and per year and its ability to recycle CO(2) from flue gas. Another option for taking advantage of the energy content of the microalgae is to directly carry out anaerobic digestion of raw algae in order to produce methane and recycle nutrients (N, P and K). In this study, a life-cycle assessment (LCA) of biogas production from the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris is performed and the results are compared to algal biodiesel and to first generation biodiesels. These results suggest that the impacts generated by the production of methane from microalgae are strongly correlated with the electric consumption. Progresses can be achieved by decreasing the mixing costs and circulation between different production steps, or by improving the efficiency of the anaerobic process under controlled conditions. This new bioenergy generating process strongly competes with others biofuel productions.
authors.affiliation: INRA, UR50, Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, Avenue des Etangs, 11000 Narbonne, France. collet@supagro.inra.fr
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Collet
authors.forename: Arnaud
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hélias
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lardon
authors.forename: Monique
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ras
authors.forename: Romy-Alice
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Goy
authors.forename: Jean-Philippe
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Steyer
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis; D000818:Animals; D056804:Biofuels; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000378:metabolism; D048408:Chlorella vulgaris / Q000254:growth & development*; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004560:Electricity; D004736:Energy-Generating Resources; D004777:Environment; D000431:Ethanol / Q000191:economics; D005285:Fermentation; D005502:Food / Q000191:economics; D005740:Gases; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D008055:Lipids / Q000032:analysis; D008697:Methane / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D005740:Gases; D008055:Lipids; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D000431:Ethanol; D008697:Methane