An assessment of the viability of alternatives to biodiesel transport fuels

This work presents an economic feasibility study of using algae and biochar burial strategies to offset carbon emission from the use of conventional fossil-derived transport fuels. The economic feasibility is quantified on the basis that the final price of the decarbonised fossil-derived diesel shou...

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Main Authors: Kächele, Rebecca, Nurkowski, Daniel, Martin, Jacob, Akroyd, Jethro, Kraft, Markus
Other Authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/152276
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1522762023-12-29T06:49:42Z An assessment of the viability of alternatives to biodiesel transport fuels Kächele, Rebecca Nurkowski, Daniel Martin, Jacob Akroyd, Jethro Kraft, Markus School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Cambridge Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore (CARES) Engineering::Chemical engineering Biodiesel Alternative Energy This work presents an economic feasibility study of using algae and biochar burial strategies to offset carbon emission from the use of conventional fossil-derived transport fuels. The economic feasibility is quantified on the basis that the final price of the decarbonised fossil-derived diesel should be lower or equal to the price of biodiesel which is deemed to be the next best alternative. The extra costs associated with the carbon capture/offset via algae and biochar burial are estimated for the most typical scenarios using the economic models developed as part of this work. In addition, High Dimensional Model Representation based global sensitivity analyses are performed in order to quantify the influence of key model parameters on the overall costs. It was found that using algae burial to offset carbon emissions is not viable for principle reasons such as the amount of water required and the burial of phosphate as well as more than doubling the current diesel price. This price is mainly due to the high costs of pumping dilute algae slurry underground. The biochar burial approach, on the other hand, was found to be much more economically viable as it only increases the conventional diesel price by a small amount. This comparably low price is due to the revenue generated from selling the electricity produced from the pyrolysis by-products. In addition, the global sensitivity analysis revealed that the overall costs were the most sensitive to the wood price, as the wood feedstock may either be an income or an expenditure. National Research Foundation (NRF) Accepted version This research is supported by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under its CREATE programme. 2021-07-28T08:12:06Z 2021-07-28T08:12:06Z 2019 Journal Article Kächele, R., Nurkowski, D., Martin, J., Akroyd, J. & Kraft, M. (2019). An assessment of the viability of alternatives to biodiesel transport fuels. Applied Energy, 251, 113363-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.113363 0306-2619 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/152276 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.113363 2-s2.0-85066264780 251 113363 en Applied Energy © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This paper was published in Applied Energy and is made available with permission of Elsevier Ltd. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Engineering::Chemical engineering
Biodiesel
Alternative Energy
spellingShingle Engineering::Chemical engineering
Biodiesel
Alternative Energy
Kächele, Rebecca
Nurkowski, Daniel
Martin, Jacob
Akroyd, Jethro
Kraft, Markus
An assessment of the viability of alternatives to biodiesel transport fuels
description This work presents an economic feasibility study of using algae and biochar burial strategies to offset carbon emission from the use of conventional fossil-derived transport fuels. The economic feasibility is quantified on the basis that the final price of the decarbonised fossil-derived diesel should be lower or equal to the price of biodiesel which is deemed to be the next best alternative. The extra costs associated with the carbon capture/offset via algae and biochar burial are estimated for the most typical scenarios using the economic models developed as part of this work. In addition, High Dimensional Model Representation based global sensitivity analyses are performed in order to quantify the influence of key model parameters on the overall costs. It was found that using algae burial to offset carbon emissions is not viable for principle reasons such as the amount of water required and the burial of phosphate as well as more than doubling the current diesel price. This price is mainly due to the high costs of pumping dilute algae slurry underground. The biochar burial approach, on the other hand, was found to be much more economically viable as it only increases the conventional diesel price by a small amount. This comparably low price is due to the revenue generated from selling the electricity produced from the pyrolysis by-products. In addition, the global sensitivity analysis revealed that the overall costs were the most sensitive to the wood price, as the wood feedstock may either be an income or an expenditure.
author2 School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
author_facet School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Kächele, Rebecca
Nurkowski, Daniel
Martin, Jacob
Akroyd, Jethro
Kraft, Markus
format Article
author Kächele, Rebecca
Nurkowski, Daniel
Martin, Jacob
Akroyd, Jethro
Kraft, Markus
author_sort Kächele, Rebecca
title An assessment of the viability of alternatives to biodiesel transport fuels
title_short An assessment of the viability of alternatives to biodiesel transport fuels
title_full An assessment of the viability of alternatives to biodiesel transport fuels
title_fullStr An assessment of the viability of alternatives to biodiesel transport fuels
title_full_unstemmed An assessment of the viability of alternatives to biodiesel transport fuels
title_sort assessment of the viability of alternatives to biodiesel transport fuels
publishDate 2021
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/152276
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