NDLI: An Investigation on the Economic Feasibility of Macroalgae as a Potential Feedstock for Biorefineries

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Konda, N. V. S. N. Murthy Singh, Seema Simmons, Blake A. Klein Marcuschamer, Daniel
Copyright Year	2015
Abstract	Macroalgal biomass has been considered as a prospective feedstock for biofuel production as, among other benefits, it is an abundant source of renewable sugars and its growth does not require arable land, fresh water, or intense care. Successful commercial deployment of macroalgae-based biorefineries, however, depends on their economic viability at industrial scales. A key objective of this study was to carry out a detailed technoeoconomic analysis (TEA) of a macroalgae biorefinery to understand the economic potential and cost drivers of macroalgae as a feedstock for the production of biofuels and biochemicals. Ethanol was used as a representative macroalgae-derived product, given the wealth of public information available to model this option, and the analysis was extended to biomass-derived sugars in order to explore the production of other fermentation-derived chemicals. Sensitivity analysis was performed on various cost drivers, such as macroalgae price, yield, solids loading, and enzyme loading during hydrolysis. With a feedstock price of $100/MT, depending on the maturity of the other key process parameters (i.e., yield, solids loading, and enzyme loading), the minimum ethanol selling price (MESP) was observed to be in the range of $3.6–8.5/gal and reduced to $2.9–7.5/gal with macroalgae priced at $50/MT. For production of chemicals, sugar prices were in the range of ¢21–47/lb or ¢16–40/lb with macroalgae priced at $100/MT and $50/MT, respectively. Given the challenging economics of the macroalgae biorefinery, coproduction of alginate was used to show the importance of multiple revenue sources, though issues regarding market saturation continue to arise when dealing with products of disparate market sizes.
Starting Page	1046
Ending Page	1056
Page Count	11
File Format	PDF
ISSN	19391234
Journal	BioEnergy Research
Volume Number	8
Issue Number	3
e-ISSN	19391242
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2015-03-06
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Macroalgae biorefinery Technoeconomic analysis (TEA) Advanced biofuels Alginate extraction Renewable sugars Plant Sciences Plant Genetics & Genomics Plant Breeding/Biotechnology Plant Ecology Wood Science & Technology
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment Agronomy and Crop Science

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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