Från alger till biodiesel - Den italienska drömmen?

Sammanfattning: This project aims to investigate whether algae can be used for biodiesel production in Italy. Algaes are a good option since they are fast growing and do not occupy arable land.   The aspects that have been considered are growing, harvesting, which algae strain that is most suitable, extraction of oil, the production of biodiesel and where in Italy this could be possible due to climate. Cost– and energy calculations have been made to investigate if biodiesel produced from algae would be profitable.   During the production of biodiesel there are several residues obtained. When the oil has been extracted from the algae, biogas is produced from the residual biomass by anaerobic digestion and then the electricity that can be produced is supplied to the production of biodiesel. When the oil is converted into biodiesel it also produces glycerine that has multiple uses and is sold to other companies. The carbon dioxide that is supplied to the algae is transported from nearby industries, so the cultivation is contributed to reduce carbon emissions in the area.   The obtained results show that it is not economically viable to produce biodiesel from algae in Italy today. The price per tonne has been calculated to € 1 919 that can be compared to the price per tonne for biodiesel produced from palm oil which is € 574. The energy calculations show that it would require 3.93 MJ to produce 1 MJ of biodiesel with today’s technology.   To lower the costs it is primarily the investment costs that need to be reduced and this is expected to happen when the technology advances. In order to improve the energy balance the energy amount extracted from the waste products must increase.