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Adapting Mass Algaculture for a Northern Climate

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The Science of Algal Fuels

Part of the book series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology ((COLE,volume 25))

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Abstract

Most attention for algal biofuel-related schemes has been focused on ‘optimal’ locations, such as the southwestern USA. While these locations have clear advantages such as high yearly insolation and availability of unused land, we believe a case can also be made for adapting algal biofuels for a diversity of ‘suboptimal’ climates. The key, as in other regions, will be to link algaculture with industrial and municipal waste resources, including nutrients from wastewater and CO2 from point source industrial emissions. Productivities comparable to warmer climates may be obtained throughout the year by a combination of factors, including appropriate strain selection for low temperature and waste heat utilization, or by switching to a heterotrophic growth mode when light is insufficient for productive photosynthesis. In this manner, mass algaculture and associated R&D can be justified by offering valuable remediatory functions (i.e. tertiary wastewater treatment and CO2 abatement), rather than relying on optimistic estimations of oil and biomass productivity to spur development in this field.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Marine Biosciences, National Research Council of Canada, 1411 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS, B3H 3Z1, Canada

    Jesse C. McNichol & Patrick J. McGinn

Authors
  1. Jesse C. McNichol
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  2. Patrick J. McGinn
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Correspondence to Jesse C. McNichol .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory, Clark Drive 222, Panacea, 32346, Florida, USA

    Richard Gordon

  2. University of Jerusalem, Mevo Hadas 20, Efrat, 90435, Israel

    Joseph Seckbach

Appendix

Appendix

CO2 sequestration calculation: Given productivity of 20 g/m2/day, maximum productivity per year  =  20 * 365  =  7.3 kg/m2/year. Approximately 1.8 t of CO2 are fixed for each ton of algae produced. 7.3 kg  *  1.8  =  13.14 kg CO2/m2/year.

Given 1,000,000 metric tons as average value for coal generating station (http://www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/ghg/onlinedata/dataSearch_e.cfm), divide 1,000,000 tons by 0.01314 tons CO2/m2/year  =  ∼76,000,000 m2  =  76 km2  =  7,600 ha.

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McNichol, J.C., McGinn, P.J. (2012). Adapting Mass Algaculture for a Northern Climate. In: Gordon, R., Seckbach, J. (eds) The Science of Algal Fuels. Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology, vol 25. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5110-1_7

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