Life cycle and techno-economic assessment of source-separated wastewater-integrated microalgae biofuel production plant: A nutrient organization approach

Microalgae cultivating in wastewater enabling nutrient uptake for biomass and biofuel generation is regarded as a promising pathway to increase sustainability of microalgae biofuel production process. A source-separated nutrient organization approach for the process of wastewater-based microalgae biofuel is proposed in this study. Comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) method and Techno-economic analysis (TEA) approach are employed to assess sustainability and economic performance of the proposed nutrient approach. Two scenarios are used to validate our study. Scenario 1 is based on the source-separated nutrient delivery approach with microalgae integrated wastewater in tertiary treatment. Scenario 2 is based on non-separated-point nutrient delivery policy and microalgae integrated with secondary wastewater treatment. The results show that the source-separated nutrient approach is effective for reducing the environmental impacts and increasing commercial potential of microalgae biofuel.