es4045488_si_001.pdf (5.93 MB)
Siting Algae Cultivation Facilities for Biofuel Production in the United States: Trade-Offs between Growth Rate, Site Constructability, Water Availability, and Infrastructure
journal contribution
posted on 2014-03-18, 00:00 authored by Erik R. Venteris, Robert C. McBride, Andre
M. Coleman, Richard L. Skaggs, Mark S. WigmostaLocating
sites for new algae cultivation facilities is a complex
task. The climate must support high growth rates, and cultivation
ponds require appropriate land and water resources, as well as transportation
and utility infrastructure. We employ our spatiotemporal Biomass Assessment
Tool (BAT) to select promising locations based on the open-pond cultivation
of Arthrospira sp. and strains of the
order Sphaeropleales. A total of 64 000 sites across the southern
United States were evaluated. We progressively applied screening criteria
and tracked their impact on the number of potential sites, geographic
location, and biomass productivity. Both strains demonstrated maximum
productivity along the Gulf of Mexico coast, with the highest values
on the Florida peninsula. In contrast, sites meeting all selection
criteria for Arthrospira were located
along the southern coast of Texas and for Sphaeropleales were located
in Louisiana and southern Arkansas. Results were driven mainly by
the lack of oil pipeline access in Florida and elevated groundwater
salinity in southern Texas. The requirement for low-salinity freshwater
(<400 mg L–1) constrained Sphaeropleales locations;
siting flexibility is greater for salt-tolerant species like Arthrospira. Combined siting factors can result in
significant departures from regions of maximum productivity but are
within the expected range of site-specific process improvements.