By: Sandra Rodriguez
September 25, 2014
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| Source: Mu et al. 2014 |
Recently there has been major consideration in trying to
find an alternative to petroleum-derived fuels.
One that has been attracting attention is algal biofuels, which use
algae as their source of natural deposits instead of petroleum, coal and
natural gas. Several studies have
proposed the integration of wastewater treatment with algae cultivation in
order to produce algal biofuels at a commercial scale more sustainably (Mu et
al. 2014). Different nutrient sources (i.e.
swine manure and freshwater with synthetic fertilizers) were combined with
conversion technologies (i.e. microwave pyrolysis) to make the algal
biofuels. What they found was the
waste-water-based algal biofuels had a better environmental performance than
fresh-water based algal biofuels; however this performance is dependent on the
wastewater characteristics and the conversion technologies used. Thus, it is unlikely that algal biofuels can
become a large-scale and environmentally preferable alternative to
petroleum-derived fuels unless the production technologies are improved (Mu et
al. 2014).
Reference:
Mu, D., M. Min, B. Krohn, K. A. Mullins, R. Ruan and J.
Hill. 2014. Life cycle environmental impacts of
waste-water based algal biofuels.
Environmental Science & Technology. doi: 10.1021/es5027689
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