skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Potential land competition between open-pond microalgae production and terrestrial dedicated feedstock supply systems in the U.S.

Journal Article · · Renewable Energy

Biofuels produced from both terrestrial and algal biomass feedstocks can contribute to energy security while providing economic, environmental, and social benefits. To assess the potential for land competition between these two feedstock types in the United States, we evaluate a scenario in which 41.5 x 109 L yr-1 of second-generation biofuels are produced on pastureland, the most likely land base where both feedstock types may be deployed. This total includes 12.0 x 109 L yr-1 of biofuels from open-pond microalgae production and 29.5 x 109 L yr-1 of biofuels from terrestrial dedicated feedstock supply systems. Under these scenarios, open-pond microalgae production is projected to use 1.2 million ha of private pastureland, while terrestrial dedicated feedstock supply systems would use 14.0 million ha of private pastureland. A spatial meta-analysis indicates that potential competition for land under these scenarios would be concentrated in 110 counties, containing 1.0 and 1.7 million hectares of algal and terrestrial dedicated feedstock production, respectively. A land competition index applied to these 110 counties suggests that 38 to 59 counties could experience competition for upwards of 40% of a county’s pastureland. However, this combined 2.7 million ha represents only 2%-5% of total pastureland in the U.S., with the remaining 12.5 million ha of algal or terrestrial dedicated feedstock production on pastureland in non-competing areas.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1253849
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-91459; BM0400000
Journal Information:
Renewable Energy, Vol. 93; ISSN 0960-1481
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (24)

Algal biofuel production for fuels and feed in a 100-ha facility: A comprehensive techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment journal July 2015
Biodiesel from microalgae journal May 2007
Environmental Life Cycle Comparison of Algae to Other Bioenergy Feedstocks journal March 2010
An integrated assessment of location-dependent scaling for microalgae biofuel production facilities journal July 2014
Land use effects on soil carbon fractions in the southeastern United States. I. Management-intensive versus extensive grazing journal October 2003
A Comparison of Profitability and Economic Efficiencies Between Management-Intensive Grazing and Conventionally Managed Dairies in Michigan journal November 1999
Biomass and bioenergy applications of the POLYSYS modeling framework11Paper prepared for presentation at the Modeling Tools for Biomass and Bioenergy Conference, 8–10 April 1997 Knoxville, TN journal April 2000
Biomass Productivities in Wild Type and Pigment Mutant of Cyclotella sp. (Diatom) journal July 2008
Demonstrated large-scale production of marine microalgae for fuels and feed journal July 2015
Supply of Cellulosic Biofuel Feedstocks and Regional Production Pattern journal November 2010
Price projections of feedstocks for biofuels and biopower in the U.S. journal February 2012
Microalgae for biodiesel production and other applications: A review journal January 2010
Implementing quality control on a random number stream to improve a stochastic weather generator journal January 2008
Energy-Water Nexus for Mass Cultivation of Algae journal July 2011
Resource demand implications for US algae biofuels production scale-up journal October 2011
Current Large-Scale US Biofuel Potential from Microalgae Cultivated in Photobioreactors journal November 2011
Economic comparison of open pond raceways to photo bio-reactors for profitable production of algae for transportation fuels in the Southwest journal May 2012
Commercial applications of microalgae journal February 2006
A GIS Cost Model to Assess the Availability of Freshwater, Seawater, and Saline Groundwater for Algal Biofuel Production in the United States journal April 2013
Siting Algae Cultivation Facilities for Biofuel Production in the United States: Trade-Offs between Growth Rate, Site Constructability, Water Availability, and Infrastructure journal March 2014
An assessment of land availability and price in the coterminous United States for conversion to algal biofuel production journal December 2012
A national-scale comparison of resource and nutrient demands for algae-based biofuel production by lipid extraction and hydrothermal liquefaction journal May 2014
National microalgae biofuel production potential and resource demand: NATIONAL ALGAE BIOFUEL PRODUCTION journal March 2011
Impact of Algal Research in Aquaculture journal December 2001

Cited By (2)

Strategies for Lipid Production Improvement in Microalgae as a Biodiesel Feedstock journal January 2016
Magnetophoretic sorting of microdroplets with different microalgal cell densities for rapid isolation of fast growing strains journal September 2017