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Theoretical Maximum Algal Oil Production
Open accessAbstract
Interest in algae as a feedstock for biofuel production has risen in recent years, due to projections that algae can produce lipids (oil) at a rate significantly higher than agriculture-based feedstocks. Current research and development of enclosed photobioreactors for commercial-scale algal oil production is directed towards pushing the upper limit of productivity beyond that of open ponds. So far, most of this development is in a prototype stage, so working production metrics for a commercial-scale algal biofuel system are still unknown, and projections are largely based on small-scale experimental data. Given this research climate, a methodical analysis of a maximum algal oil production rate from a theoretical perspective will be useful to the emerging industry for understanding the upper limits that will bound the production capabilities of new designs. This paper presents a theoretical approach to calculating an absolute upper limit to algal production based on physical laws and assumptions of perfect efficiencies. In addition, it presents a best case approach that represents an optimistic target for production based on realistic efficiencies and is calculated for six global sites. The theoretical maximum was found to be 354,000 L·ha −1 ·year −1 (38,000 gal·ac −1 ·year −1 ) of unrefined oil, while the best cases examined in this report range from 40,700–53,200 L·ha −1 ·year −1 (4,350–5,700 gal·ac −1 ·year −1 ) of unrefined oil.
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“Theoretically, microalgae can transform 12.8-14.4% of average solar irradiation into biomass [24] with a yield of 77 g/m 2 /day, which gives approximately 280,000 kg/ha/year of biomass [25].”
From The Perspective of Large-Scale Production of Algae Biodiesel (2020) · cites this paper as [24]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Weyer, K. M., Bush, D. R., Darzins, A., & Willson, B. D.
- Affiliations
- Colorado State University (US)
- National Laboratory of the Rockies (US)
- Corresponding author
- Weyer, Kristina M.
- ORCID
- Bush, Daniel R.
- Venue
- BioEnergy Research
- Published
- 2009-10-08
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 204-213
- ISSN
- 1939-1234 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1242
- OpenAlex
- W2115390611
- Cited by
- 415
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 25 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 51 · 2013: 49 · 2012: 48
- FWCI
- 14.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- BioEnergy Research (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy (DE -AC36-08GO28308, No. DE-AC36-08GO28308, 08GO28308, DE-AC36, Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308, AC36‐08GO28308)
- Colorado School of Mines
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Algal biology and biofuel production
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Bioenergy crop production and management
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction
- Keywords
- microalgae, algal biofuels, photobioreactors, lipid yield
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