Assessment of algal biofuel resource potential in the United States with consideration of regional water stress
Abstract
Algae have been considered as a promising feedstock for biofuels. Because scaling-up algae biofuels production consumes significant amount of water, the impact of water use should be considered. This study evaluates algae-derived biofuel production potential in the United States (US) with consideration of regional water stress. We identified 7,075 potential sites in the US meeting land, biomass productivity and CO2 co-locating criteria using the Biomass Assessment Tool (BAT). The impact of water use for algal biofuel production in terms of water scarcity footprint is quantified using modeled 33-year site-scale water consumption from BAT and the county-level water stress indicator from the Available Water Remaining for the US (AWARE-US) metric. Long-term (20 billion gallon per year [BGY]) and near-term (5 BGY) renewable diesel (RD) production targets are considered. To select suitable algae cultivation facilities, biomass yield and water use are considered with and without a water stress constraint. We found that ranking sites based on biomass yield results in a high water use impact (24.5 thousand US equivalent billion gallons (BGYe) for the long-term RD target). If sites are instead ranked on water use efficiency, water consumption is reduced on average by 62%, with an average reduction in biomass yield bymore »
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Bioenergy Technologies Office (EE-3B)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1494699
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1492708
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-138253
Journal ID: ISSN 2211-9264
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830; AC02-06CH11357
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Algal Research
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 37; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 2211-9264
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- algae, biofuel, renewable energy, water scarcity footprint, water use, sustainable, Biomass Assessment Tool, BAT, AWARE-US; 09 BIOMASS FUELS; algae; biofuel; renewable energy; water scarcity footprint; water use; sustainability
Citation Formats
Xu, Hui, Lee, Uisung, Coleman, André M., Wigmosta, Mark S., and Wang, Michael. Assessment of algal biofuel resource potential in the United States with consideration of regional water stress. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1016/j.algal.2018.11.002.
Xu, Hui, Lee, Uisung, Coleman, André M., Wigmosta, Mark S., & Wang, Michael. Assessment of algal biofuel resource potential in the United States with consideration of regional water stress. United States. doi:10.1016/j.algal.2018.11.002.
Xu, Hui, Lee, Uisung, Coleman, André M., Wigmosta, Mark S., and Wang, Michael. Tue .
"Assessment of algal biofuel resource potential in the United States with consideration of regional water stress". United States. doi:10.1016/j.algal.2018.11.002. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1494699.
@article{osti_1494699,
title = {Assessment of algal biofuel resource potential in the United States with consideration of regional water stress},
author = {Xu, Hui and Lee, Uisung and Coleman, André M. and Wigmosta, Mark S. and Wang, Michael},
abstractNote = {Algae have been considered as a promising feedstock for biofuels. Because scaling-up algae biofuels production consumes significant amount of water, the impact of water use should be considered. This study evaluates algae-derived biofuel production potential in the United States (US) with consideration of regional water stress. We identified 7,075 potential sites in the US meeting land, biomass productivity and CO2 co-locating criteria using the Biomass Assessment Tool (BAT). The impact of water use for algal biofuel production in terms of water scarcity footprint is quantified using modeled 33-year site-scale water consumption from BAT and the county-level water stress indicator from the Available Water Remaining for the US (AWARE-US) metric. Long-term (20 billion gallon per year [BGY]) and near-term (5 BGY) renewable diesel (RD) production targets are considered. To select suitable algae cultivation facilities, biomass yield and water use are considered with and without a water stress constraint. We found that ranking sites based on biomass yield results in a high water use impact (24.5 thousand US equivalent billion gallons (BGYe) for the long-term RD target). If sites are instead ranked on water use efficiency, water consumption is reduced on average by 62%, with an average reduction in biomass yield by 25%. To reconcile trade-offs between biomass yield and water use impact, AWARE-US can be applied along with considering biomass yield. This strategy removes sites located in water stressed areas while keeping high productivity sites. For the 20 BGY RD target, this reduces water use impact by 55% without lowering biomass productivity or 97% with moderate reductions (4% on average) in biomass productivity, compared to the sites ranked by biomass yield alone. The results demonstrate that incorporating water stress into energy-scale algae biofuel production planning is key to achieving synergies between biofuel yield and fresh water use impact.},
doi = {10.1016/j.algal.2018.11.002},
journal = {Algal Research},
number = C,
volume = 37,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {1}
}
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Figure 1: Overall workflow for water impact analysis. Algae cultivation facilities are selected using three alternative sitting strategies: 1) biomass productivity ranking considering CO2 resources, 2) water use efficiency ranking, and 3) avoiding high water stressed regions (hotspots) with biomass productivity ranking. Water stress impact is quantified using site-level watermore »