Paper details

Title:

Biorefinery of Microalgae via Combination of Pulsed Electric Field Treatment and Hydrothermal Liquefaction - A Techno-Economic Assessment

Author(s):

Guo, B., Frey, W., Hornung, U., Dahmen, N.

Document(s):

Abstract:

In a previous work by our group, pulsed electric field (PEF) pretreatment has been proposed as a promising technique for the extraction of high valued amino acids concentrates from microalgae S. almeriensis, and the following hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of residual biomass produces better quality biocrude with higher yield. However, to which extent could PEF-HTL combined technique enhance the microalgae biofuel economically is still unclear. Herein, we report a preliminary techno-economic assessment of PEF-HTL process within a microalgae biorefinery plant with an output of 0.5 MW in the form of biocrude. Results indicate that production of microalgae biofuel alone is still far from commercial application, leading to an annual loss of 2.615 M€. While a fractionation step to extract high-value products promises to reduce the overall capital costs significantly, PEF treatment could improve this effect bringing the by-produced microalgae biofuel to a competitive level (0.78 €·kg-1). The market price for high-value product plays an essential role in the final costs. Given that selling microalgae biofuel should occur at the same price of the crude oil (0.37 €·kg-1), the value added amino-acid based product minimum price is supposed to be 7.43 €·L-1 for a positive capital return.

Keywords:

economics, liquefaction, microalgae

Topic:

Biomass Technologies and Conversion to Intermediate Bioenergy Carriers and Products of the Bioeconomy

Subtopic:

Biorefineries

Event:

28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition

Session:

3BO.3.4

Pages:

526 - 529

ISBN:

978-88-89407-20-2

Paper DOI:

10.5071/28thEUBCE2020-3BO.3.4

Price:

FREE