Thermodynamic analysis of algal biocrude production

Thermodynamic analysis of algal biocrude production

Although algal biofuels possess great potential, profitable production is quite challenging. Much of this challenge is rooted in the thermodynamic constraints associated with producing fuels with high energy, low entropy, and high exergy from dispersed materials. In this study, a preliminary thermodynamic analysis is presented that calculates the energy, entropy, and exergy of the intermediate ...

Power of Plankton: Effects of Algal Biodiversity on Biocrude Production and Stability.

Algae-derived biocrude oil is a possible renewable energy alternative to fossil fuel based crude oil. Outdoor cultivation in raceway ponds is estimated to provide a better return on energy invested than closed photobioreactor systems. However, in these open systems, algal crops are subjected to environmental variation in temperature and irradiance, as well as biotic invasions which can cause co...

Algal Biomass and Biodiesel Production

Cyclic Photobiological Algal H2-production

Previous work from our laboratory demonstrated the feasibility of using sulfur-deprived algal cultures to photoproduce H2 continuously for 3-4 days (Melis et al., 2000; Ghirardi et al., 2000a). The production of H2 depends mostly on the photosynthetic H2O-oxidation activity of the cultures (Ghirardi et al., 2000 a and b; Kosourov et al., 2002), and requires concomitant operation of O2-consumpti...

Coupling of Algal Biofuel Production with Wastewater

Microalgae have gained enormous consideration from scientific community worldwide emerging as a viable feedstock for a renewable energy source virtually being carbon neutral, high lipid content, and comparatively more advantageous to other sources of biofuels. Although microalgae are seen as a valuable source in majority part of the world for production of biofuels and bioproducts, still they a...