Life Cycle Assessment Tools for Algal Biofuels

Life Cycle Assessment Tools for Algal Biofuels

Algal biofuels are being pursued aggressively to meet Renewable Fuel Standards mandates for advanced biofuels. A life cycle assessment (LCA) of emissions is required to qualify as an advanced biofuel. Several LCA studies have been published for a few particular approaches; however, it is difficult to compare between technologies because of differences amongst inputs, system boundaries, and analysis approaches in these seminal studies. The Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation Model (GREET) developed at Argonne National Laboratory has analyzed many biofuel and petro- fuel pathways. We report here work to enable systematic comparisons of algal biofuel pathway options. The work comprises two elements 1) An algal process model supporting a growing number of unit operations that is able to encode processing from CO2 transport through conversion to fuel and 2) extensions to GREET that enable detailed life cycle analysis of algal biofuels and co-products. The project objective is to work collaboratively to provide life-cycle assessment tools to the broad community of academic, government, and industrial labs that can form a basis for uniform analysis of algae technology options.