Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Study on Environmental Impact of Oil Production from Micro-Algae and Terrestrial Oilseed Crops

Global policies for reducing fossil fuel dependency and CO2 emissions have fostered the development of low carbon sustainable energy. Since first generation biofuels may generate environmental burdens related to agricultural production, second and third generation biofuels from lignocellulosic feedstock and algae-to-energy systems have been developed. In this study, the Life Cycle Assessment methodology is applied to compare quantitatively, utilizing primary data, the impacts of the first generation in respect to the third-generation biofuels. Results show that micro-algae are neither competitive yet with traditional oil crops nor with fossil fuel. The use of renewable technologies as photovoltaics and biogas self-production might increase the competitiveness of micro-algae oil. Further investigations are however necessary to optimize their production chain and to increase the added value of co-products.