title: Comprehensive techno-economic analysis of wastewater-based algal biofuel production: A case study.
abstract: Combining algae cultivation and wastewater treatment for biofuel production is considered the feasible way for resource utilization. An updated comprehensive techno-economic analysis method that integrates resources availability into techno-economic analysis was employed to evaluate the wastewater-based algal biofuel production with the consideration of wastewater treatment improvement, greenhouse gases emissions, biofuel production costs, and coproduct utilization. An innovative approach consisting of microalgae cultivation on centrate wastewater, microalgae harvest through flocculation, solar drying of biomass, pyrolysis of biomass to bio-oil, and utilization of co-products, was analyzed and shown to yield profound positive results in comparison with others. The estimated break even selling price of biofuel ($2.23/gallon) is very close to the acceptable level. The approach would have better overall benefits and the internal rate of return would increase up to 18.7% if three critical components, namely cultivation, harvest, and downstream conversion could achieve breakthroughs.
authors.affiliation: School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing Campus), Ding 11 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China; Center for Biorefining and Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1390 Eckles Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Chunhua
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xin
authors.affiliation: Center for Biorefining and Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1390 Eckles Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Min M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Addy
authors.affiliation: School of Economic and Management, Beijing University Of Civil Engineering And Architecture, No 1 Zhanlan Road, Beijing 100044, China.
authors.forename: Jinyu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Center for Biorefining and Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1390 Eckles Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Yanling
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Center for Biorefining and Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1390 Eckles Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Sibo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental and Sustainability Science, Kean University, USA.
authors.forename: Dongyan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mu
authors.affiliation: The MOE Engineering Research Center for Biomass Conversion, Nanchang University, 235 Nanjing Road, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330047, China.
authors.forename: Yuhuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing Campus), Ding 11 Xueyuan Road, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Rijia
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Center for Biorefining and Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1390 Eckles Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Center for Biorefining and Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1390 Eckles Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108, USA; The MOE Engineering Research Center for Biomass Conversion, Nanchang University, 235 Nanjing Road, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330047, China. Electronic address: ruanx001@umn.edu.
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ruan
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels / Q000191:economics*; D018533:Biomass; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005427:Flocculation; D005740:Gases; D058086:Microalgae / Q000378:metabolism*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000191:economics*
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D005740:Gases; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Algal biofuel; Centrate wastewater; Microalgae; Pyrolysis; Techno-economic analysis