Geographic Analysis of Algae Production for Biofuels at Kansas Wastewater Treatment Plants

摘要

Resource demand analyses indicate that commercial-scale algal biofuel production wouldnecessitate unsustainable amounts of fertilizer and freshwater. Alternatively, municipalwastewater effluent can be used, but this restricts algal production to available areas nearwastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The goals of this analysis were to determine the availableareas by land cover type up to 1.5 miles from WWTPs; to determine the limiting factors for algalproduction using wastewater; and to investigate the potential production at rural, near-urban, andurban WWTPs in Kansas. Approximately 51% and 87% of the land around urban and ruralWWTPs, respectively, was identified as potentially available for algal production. UrbanWWTPs are generally land-limited and have excess wastewater effluent, while most ruralWWTPs are water-limited but have 96% of the total available land. Commercial-scale algaeproduction collocated with WWTPs is feasible and would be optimized through supplementationof non-fresh water and waste nutrients at water-limited WWTPs.