Biodiesel from algae vs talloe

1. An LCA - Biodiesel from Animal
Fats vs Algae
Group __ presentation
Nerida Wilkinson,
VS

5. Goals and scope
In scope Out of scope
Pretreatment of the 2 kinds of raw materials Cultivation of algae & animal
Production of biodiesel through esterification Recycle and side product during production
process
End use of the product in heavy duty
vehicles
Transportation of material during distribution
of the product
Overall GHG emissions produced by both
types of biodiesel
Toxic gas emissions emitted by both types
of biodiesel production processes

6. Goals and scope
● Functional unit (FU):
○ Per gigajoule(GJ) of fuel (Production)
○ Per km travelled (Transportation)
● Cradle-to-grave

7. Research method
Software Use
Microsoft Excel - Calculation
- Creation of graphs and figures
for visual representation of data
Google Docs Writing the report online
Microsoft Word Final editing of content and format
UBC Library Summon Research and data collection
Google Chrome Research and data collection
GHGenius Conduct LCA

8. Research method

9. UPSTREAM CYCLE EMISSION DISCUSSION
➢ Upstream analysis: Evaluation of the initial stages in the life cycle of the product.
➢ Comparisons are drawn on various bases to figure out which feedstock is best suited for the
production of Biodiesel - i.e Algae Oil or Tallow and which out of the two causes Biodiesel
production to have a more positive impact on the environment.
COMPARISON BASED ON CO2 - EQUIVALENT EMISSIONS:
➢ It is an estimate of how much a gas contributes to global warming, relative to CO2 and are
measured per unit of energy delivered to final consumers using Biodiesel as the fuel.
➢ Total CO2 - equivalent emissions per unit of energy for Algae Oil: 9,233 grams/GJ and for Tallow:
9,574 grams/GJ.
➢ Emissions are found to be greater for Biodiesel produced from Tallow.
➢ Thus, Biodiesel produced from Algae Oil is a more environmental friendly, non-polluting fuel.
➢ Due to two major reasons -
1) Feedstock upgrading, feedstock transmission and fuel production are found to be significantly
more taxing for animal fat to Tallow when compared to emissions produced in the same stage for
Algae to Algae Oil.
2) A large amount of emissions produced for the upgrade of Algae to Algae Oil are displaced by the
co-products of the same process compared to the amount of emissions displaced for Tallow.

10. CO2-EQUIVALENT EMISSIONS PER UNIT OF ENERGY,
DELIVERED TO END USERS, BY STAGE

11. COMPARISON BASED ON QUANTITY OF POLLUTANTS:
➢ The quantity of pollutants produced by the entire upstream Biodiesel fuel cycle
per unit of energy delivered to end users suggest that Biodiesel prepared from
Algae Oil is a more sustainable fuel in comparison to Biodiesel prepared from
animal Tallow.
➢ The primary reason behind this result:
Using Algae Oil as feedstock results in a significantly large opposite impact value
for the oxides of Nitrogen i.e. -38 grams/GJ for N2O and -476 grams/GJ for NO2
which is due to the utilization of the Nitrogen Oxides by other co-products.
➢ The value for Tallow as feedstock is not as large.
➢ After carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) is found to be the main pollutant for
both kinds of feedstocks having a value of 60 grams/GJ for Algae Oil as feedstock
and a value of 53 grams/GJ for Tallow as feedstock.
➢ NOTE: Even though methane (CH4) is found to be the second major pollutant, it
has negligible values when compared to the emission value of carbon dioxide
(CO2).

12. TOTAL EMISSIONS OVER THE UPSTREAM FUEL CYCLE, PER
UNIT OF ENERGY DELIVERED TO END USERS, BY POLLUTANT
AND FEEDSTOCK/FUEL COMBINATION (GRAMS/GJ)

13. COMPARISON BASED ON TOTAL GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSION (NOT WEIGHTED):
➢ Quantitative comparison of the total amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted during
each stage.
➢ Emissions are found to be greater for Algae Oil: 18,496 grams/GJ relative to Tallow:
14,566 grams/GJ.
➢ No qualitative information provided on the emission distribution according to the toxicity
levels of the emitted greenhouse gases (since unweighted)..
➢ No information on what percentage of these emissions for each feedstock, are highly toxic.
➢ We cannot conclude which feedstock is more eco-friendly based on just quantitative,
unweighted emission values.
➢ The primary reason behind more emissions produced by the Algae Oil feedstock:
there is a significant amount of emission produced in the fertilizer manufacture, cultivation
and feedstock recovery stage - stages only required to obtain Algae and are not animal fat,
thus, 0 emissions produced in these stages for the Tallow feedstock.
➢ Maximum GHG emission takes place in the feedstock upgrading stage for both kinds of
feedstock.

14. TOTAL EMISSIONS ALL GREENHOUSE GASES (NOT
WEIGHTED)

15. COMPARISON BASED ON DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ACTIVE TOTAL GREENHOUSE GASES AND
THE SUM OF INDIVIDUAL GREENHOUSE GASES
➢ The difference between the active total greenhouse gases and the sum of the individual
greenhouse gases emitted at the various stages of the Biodiesel fuel cycle for two kinds of
feedstocks i.e. Algae Oil and Tallow is discussed.
➢ The negative values in the table represent a positive environmental impact, showing where
emissions were displaced or cancelled out.
➢ A negative value would mean that the process would be biogenic at that stage - production
or generation of which is carried out by a living organism.
➢ The difference is found to be -4 for Biodiesel prepared from Algae Oil and -1 for Biodiesel
prepared from Tallow.
➢ The Algae Oil feedstock has a more negative value, which means that Biodiesel production
from Algae Oil is a more biogenic process when compared to production from animal
Tallow and hence, is more environmentally friendly.
➢ The stages contributing to this high negative value for the Algae Oil feedstock: feedstock
upgradation stage and the feedstock recovery stage. Thus, these two stages are the most
sustainably performed processes.

16. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ACTIVE TOTAL AND SUM OF
INDIVIDUAL GREENHOUSE GASES

17. FINAL RESULT FOR THE UPSTREAM FUEL CYCLE
➢ Drawing inferences from all 4 comparisons, it is concluded that for the upstream
cycle i.e. all stages until fuel production, Biodiesel produced from Algae Oil as
feedstock is a more environmentally friendly and sustainable fuel compared to
Biodiesel produced from Tallow.
➢ This is because the production process of Biodiesel produced from Algae Oil causes
less toxic emissions to be generated as compared to toxic emissions generated by
animal Tallow.

18. LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS
➢ Cradle to Grave, or Life cycle Assessment (LCA), is a methodology used to evaluate the
environmental impact of all the phases in the life of the product from obtaining of raw
materials, processing of these materials, manufacturing, usage, and disposal of the
product.
➢ A cradle to grave LCA has the following stages:
1. Raw Material Acquisition (Cradle)
2. Material Purification
3. Product Manufacture
4. Product Use
5. Product Disposal (Grave)

19. LCA of Algae Biodiesel and Tallow Biodiesel
➢ The LCA has been conducted for Heavy Duty vehicles namely buses and trucks.
➢ The steps that highlight the full life cycle of algae and tallow biodiesel starting from raw
material acquisition to disposal are:
● Fertilizer Manufacture
● Cultivation
● Feedstock Transport
● Feedstock Upgrade
● Feedstock Recovery
● Fuel Production
● Fuel Storage
● Fuel Dispensing
● Vehicle operation

20. LCA of Algae Biodiesel and Tallow Biodiesel (contd.)
➢ The LCA results are presented in gCO2-eq/km, that is, the amount of carbon dioxide
emissions per kilometer of distance travelled by the vehicle.
➢ Emissions from Light Duty vehicles are not included for this analysis as biodiesel is not a
common fuel for light duty vehicles. Hence, their contribution is considered negligible.
➢ The analysis has been conducted for the full fuel life cycle which takes into consideration,
the emissions from all the steps involved in the production of algae and tallow biodiesel.
➢ The Sub Total emissions considers only the life cycle of the biodiesel- from acquiring
feedstock to use in heavy duty vehicles for their operation
➢ The Grand Total emissions also include the full biodiesel life cycle along with the
emissions from manufacturing of the vehicles in which the biodiesel is used.

21. LCA results for Buses and Trucks

22. Comparison of HDVs (Buses vs Trucks)
➢ The emissions at the various LCA stages for buses is much higher than that of trucks.
➢ Trucks have a larger negative value for the carbon content in the end-use fuel from
carbon dioxide in air.
➢ The negative values depict a positive impact on the environment. That is a decrease in
emissions.
➢ Buses have higher carbon emission with the grand total being 243.4 gCO2-eq/km for
biodiesel produced from algae and 249.9 gCO2-eq/km for that produced from tallow
compared to trucks which has a grand total of 199.3 gCO2-eq/km and 204.5 gCO2-eq/km
for biodiesel produced from algae and tallow respectively.
➢ This means that the carbon footprint of buses is higher than that of trucks.

23. LCA Results of Algae and Tallow Biodiesel

24. Comparison of Algae Biodiesel vs Tallow Biodiesel
➢ The comparison is drawn between algae biodiesel and tallow biodiesel.
➢ Different steps in the life cycle of both biodiesel have been compared based on the stages of LCA.
● STAGE 1 (Cradle): Raw Material Acquisition
○ Algae biodiesel has the added emissions from fertilizer manufacture and that
from cultivation of algae. Whereas, tallow is obtained from animals hence, the
emissions from the latter is 0 for tallow biodiesel.
● STAGE 2: Material Purification
○ The emissions from upgrading the feedstock for production of both algae and
tallow biodiesel is higher for tallow biodiesel.
○ Algae feedstock for algae biodiesel has emissions involved in the recovery
process as well, which is not the case for tallow feedstock used in tallow
biodiesel.
○ Tallow feedstock is much bulkier as compared to algae feedstock. Therefore it
requires bigger means of transporting the feedstock. This results in higher
emissions in transporting tallow compared to the emissions from
transportation of algae feedstock.

25. Comparison of Algae Biodiesel vs Tallow Biodiesel
● STAGE 3: Product Manufacture
○ The emissions from production of algae biodiesel is less than the
emissions from production of tallow biodiesel.
● STAGE 4: Product Use
○ Biodiesel produced by both algae and tallow have the same usage
which is to run Heavy Duty Vehicles so emissions in both is the same
and do not depend on the life cycle of the biodiesel.
● STAGE 5: Product Disposal
○ The combustion of biodiesel is assumed as disposal of biodiesel. It is
again the same for both algae and tallow biodiesel as it is dependent
upon the vehicle that it has been used in for operation.

26. Result of Life Cycle Analysis of Algae Biodiesel vs Tallow Biodiesel
The sub total emissions that is the emissions for the full life cycle of the biodiesel for algae
biodiesel is 170.5 gCO2-eq/km and that of tallow biodiesel is 175.9 gCO2-eq/km. It is higher for
tallow biodiesel as compared to algae biodiesel.
The same is true for the grand total emissions which is 202.8 gCO2-eq/km and 208.2 gCO2-
eq/km for algae and tallow biodiesel respectively.
Hence from this Life Cycle Analysis, it can be inferred that the carbon footprint of Tallow
biodiesel is higher than that of algae biodiesel. This means that algae biodiesel is a much more
sustainable option to use as fuel in vehicles as compared to tallow biodiesel.