IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v37y2009i4p1479-1488.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The analysis on energy and environmental impacts of microalgae-based fuel methanol in China

Author

Listed:
  • Liu, Jing
  • Ma, Xiaoqian

Abstract

The whole life of methanol fuel, produced by microalgae biomass which is a kind of renewable energy, is evaluated by using a method of life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA has been used to identify and quantify the environment emissions and energy efficiency of the system throughout the whole life cycle, including microalgae cultivation, methanol conversion, transport, and end-use. Energy efficiency, defined as the ratio of the energy of methanol produced to the total required energy, is 1.24, the results indicate that it is plausible as an energy producing process. The environmental impact loading of microalgae-based fuel methanol is 0.187mPET2000 in contrast to 0.828mPET2000 for gasoline. The effect of photochemical ozone formation is the highest of all the calculated categorization impacts of the two fuels. Utilization of microalgae an raw material of producing methanol fuel is beneficial to both production of renewable fuels and improvement of the ecological environment. This Fuel methanol is friendly to the environment, which should take an important role in automobile industry development and gasoline fuel substitute.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Jing & Ma, Xiaoqian, 2009. "The analysis on energy and environmental impacts of microalgae-based fuel methanol in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1479-1488, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:37:y:2009:i:4:p:1479-1488
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(08)00749-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kadam, K.L, 2002. "Environmental implications of power generation via coal-microalgae cofiring," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 27(10), pages 905-922.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Peter, Angela Paul & Koyande, Apurav Krishna & Chew, Kit Wayne & Ho, Shih-Hsin & Chen, Wei-Hsin & Chang, Jo-Shu & Krishnamoorthy, Rambabu & Banat, Fawzi & Show, Pau Loke, 2022. "Continuous cultivation of microalgae in photobioreactors as a source of renewable energy: Current status and future challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    2. Lucas Reijnders, 2013. "Lipid‐based liquid biofuels from autotrophic microalgae: energetic and environmental performance," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(1), pages 73-85, January.
    3. Wang, Bing & Kocaoglu, Dundar F. & Daim, Tugrul U. & Yang, Jiting, 2010. "A decision model for energy resource selection in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 7130-7141, November.
    4. Abbasi, Tasneem & Abbasi, S.A., 2010. "Biomass energy and the environmental impacts associated with its production and utilization," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 919-937, April.
    5. Li, Yuan-Guang & Xu, Ling & Huang, Ying-Ming & Wang, Feng & Guo, Chen & Liu, Chun-Zhao, 2011. "Microalgal biodiesel in China: Opportunities and challenges," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(10), pages 3432-3437.
    6. Ma, Hengyun & Oxley, Les & Gibson, John & Li, Wen, 2010. "A survey of China's renewable energy economy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 438-445, January.
    7. Naraharisetti, Pavan Kumar & Das, Probir & Sharratt, Paul N., 2017. "Critical factors in energy generation from microalgae," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 138-152.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Al-Jabri, Hareb & Das, Probir & Khan, Shoyeb & AbdulQuadir, Mohammad & Thaher, Mehmoud Ibrahim & Hoekman, Kent & Hawari, Alaa H., 2022. "A comparison of bio-crude oil production from five marine microalgae – Using life cycle analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    2. Farrelly, Damien J. & Everard, Colm D. & Fagan, Colette C. & McDonnell, Kevin P., 2013. "Carbon sequestration and the role of biological carbon mitigation: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 712-727.
    3. Milano, Jassinnee & Ong, Hwai Chyuan & Masjuki, H.H. & Chong, W.T. & Lam, Man Kee & Loh, Ping Kwan & Vellayan, Viknes, 2016. "Microalgae biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuel for power generation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 180-197.
    4. H. Chanakya & Durga Mahapatra & R. Sarada & R. Abitha, 2013. "Algal biofuel production and mitigation potential in India," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 113-136, January.
    5. Rawat, I. & Ranjith Kumar, R. & Mutanda, T. & Bux, F., 2013. "Biodiesel from microalgae: A critical evaluation from laboratory to large scale production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 444-467.
    6. Zhou, Wenguang & Chen, Paul & Min, Min & Ma, Xiaochen & Wang, Jinghan & Griffith, Richard & Hussain, Fida & Peng, Pu & Xie, Qinglong & Li, Yun & Shi, Jian & Meng, Jianzong & Ruan, Roger, 2014. "Environment-enhancing algal biofuel production using wastewaters," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 256-269.
    7. Choi, Hong Il & Sung, Young Joon & Hong, Min Eui & Han, Jonghee & Min, Byoung Koun & Sim, Sang Jun, 2022. "Reconsidering the potential of direct microalgal biomass utilization as end-products: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    8. Zhao, Bingtao & Su, Yaxin & Liu, Dunyu & Zhang, Hang & Liu, Wang & Cui, Guomin, 2016. "SO2/NOx emissions and ash formation from algae biomass combustion: Process characteristics and mechanisms," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 821-830.
    9. Adenle, Ademola A. & Haslam, Gareth E. & Lee, Lisa, 2013. "Global assessment of research and development for algae biofuel production and its potential role for sustainable development in developing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 182-195.
    10. Bradley, Tom & Maga, Daniel & Antón, Sara, 2015. "Unified approach to Life Cycle Assessment between three unique algae biofuel facilities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 1052-1061.
    11. Giostri, A. & Binotti, M. & Macchi, E., 2016. "Microalgae cofiring in coal power plants: Innovative system layout and energy analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 449-464.
    12. Fortier, Marie-Odile P. & Roberts, Griffin W. & Stagg-Williams, Susan M. & Sturm, Belinda S.M., 2014. "Life cycle assessment of bio-jet fuel from hydrothermal liquefaction of microalgae," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 73-82.
    13. Nematollahi, Maryam & Sadeghi, Sadegh & Rasam, Hamed & Bidabadi, Mehdi, 2020. "Analytical modelling of counter-flow non-premixed combustion of coal particles under non-adiabatic conditions taking into account trajectory of particles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    14. Oumer, A.N. & Hasan, M.M. & Baheta, Aklilu Tesfamichael & Mamat, Rizalman & Abdullah, A.A., 2018. "Bio-based liquid fuels as a source of renewable energy: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 82-98.
    15. Doshi, Amar & Pascoe, Sean & Coglan, Louisa & Rainey, Thomas J., 2016. "Economic and policy issues in the production of algae-based biofuels: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 329-337.
    16. Hideki Kanda & Peng Li & Motonobu Goto & Hisao Makino, 2015. "Energy-Saving Lipid Extraction from Wet Euglena gracilis by the Low-Boiling-Point Solvent Dimethyl Ether," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, January.
    17. Sun, Amy & Davis, Ryan & Starbuck, Meghan & Ben-Amotz, Ami & Pate, Ron & Pienkos, Philip T., 2011. "Comparative cost analysis of algal oil production for biofuels," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 5169-5179.
    18. Pragya, Namita & Pandey, Krishan K., 2016. "Life cycle assessment of green diesel production from microalgae," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 623-632.
    19. Michael Borowitzka & Navid Moheimani, 2013. "Sustainable biofuels from algae," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 13-25, January.
    20. Zhao, Bingtao & Su, Yaxin & Zhang, Yixin & Cui, Guomin, 2015. "Carbon dioxide fixation and biomass production from combustion flue gas using energy microalgae," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 347-357.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:37:y:2009:i:4:p:1479-1488. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.