Energy and Sensitivity Analysis of Biodiesel Production from Microalgae Biomass

Microalgae have been proposed as a potential feedstock for the production of biodiesel due to its high photosynthetic efficiency, which leads to high oil content available. Lots of studies have provide scientifically proven data that shows the oil content in microalgae biomass is significantly high compared to other oil sources for biodiesel production. However, throughout the production process high energy input is required for microalgae cultivation and oil extractions steps. This may out weight the advantages of microalgae biomass stated earlier. Therefore, there is a need to determine whether microalgal biodiesel can deliver more energy than what has been required to produce it. The method that will be used to achieve the aim is by conducting energy and sensitivity analysis. In this project, all analysis will be done on assumptions that the systems to produce biodiesel from Nannochloropsis species which have lipid content of around 35% per dry 1 kg biomass is cultivated in a photobioreactor. The system boundaries are defined which are the cultivation, harvesting, extraction and biodiesel production. Thus all analysis will only focus within these boundaries. The functional unit used throughout the analysis 1 MJ per 1 kg biodiesel.