LCS-FY2019-PP-13
Fuel Oil from Algal Biomass:
Evaluation on CO2 Emission and Economy
Summary
Fuel oil production utilizing algae biomass production by photosynthesis has been attracted with the trend toward carbon-free liquid fuels. In recent years, challenges have been made to put it into practical use as an aircraft fuel, which is difficult to electrify.
While LCS has been focusing on this technology field since 2012, and has been working on process evaluations based on data such as cell productivity and cell composition (①University of Tsukuba, ②NIWA, New Zealand), it has been difficult to find a real cost advantage. Recently, data on the range at which algae biomass fuel cost can compete with market prices have been published (③DOE, USA), and we have made a process comparison on these ①～③ processes while adding the viewpoint of CO2 emission load.
The results demonstrated that a fuel oil production process based on algal biomass utilizing fossil fuel derived CO2 cannot produce low-CO2 emission load fuel. In order to realize a carbon-free liquid fuel, further studies are needed to search for routes such as finding other non-fossil fuel resources or combining fossil fuel resources with a DAC process.