Techno-economic Analysis of Algae Biomass Production

Abstract. Biofuels produced from renewable feedstocks are needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Algae could be an ideal feedstock because algae have a fast growth rate, accumulate large amounts of lipids, and do not need to be grown on prime farmland. However, algae grown in energy-efficient and economic open ponds are often infected with algae grazers that can decimate whole ponds in days. This infection challenge could be reduced by the cultivation of probiotic or protective bacteria. These bacteria could be used either to improve growth rates of algae to overcome losses from grazers or provide chemical defense for algae against grazers. Even if technologically possible, the cultivation of bacteria is an added process. To determine if this is a worth-while addition to algae production systems, techno-economic models will need to be developed using experimentally derived parameters to compare algae production in open ponds with and without probiotic bacteria production. The results presented in this paper reflect the first step, development of a kinetic growth-based techno-economic model for only algae production. In future work, the techno-economic model will include the kinetic interactions of algae, probiotic bacteria, and grazers.