The analysis on energy and environmental impacts of microalgae-based fuel methanol in China

The whole life of methanol fuel, produced by microalgae biomass which is a kind of renewable energy, is evaluated by using a method of life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA has been used to identify and quantify the environment emissions and energy efficiency of the system throughout the whole life cycle, including microalgae cultivation, methanol conversion, transport, and end-use. Energy efficiency, defined as the ratio of the energy of methanol produced to the total required energy, is 1.24, the results indicate that it is plausible as an energy producing process. The environmental impact loading of microalgae-based fuel methanol is 0.187mPFT(2000) in contrast to 0.828mPET(2000) for gasoline. The effect of photochemical ozone formation is the highest of all the calculated categorization impacts of the two fuels. Utilization of microalgae an raw material of producing methanol fuel is beneficial to both production of renewable fuels and improvement of the ecological environment. This Fuel methanol is friendly to the environment, which should take an important role in automobile industry development and gasoline fuel substitute. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.