Chapter 8

Life cycle sustainability aspects of microalgal biofuels

George G. Zaimes and Vikas Khanna,    Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Holistic systems analysis of biofuel production that considers the environmental impacts over the entire fuel life cycle, from raw material extraction to cultivation, conversion, and final use, has emerged as the leading methodological paradigm for quantifying the environmental sustainability of biomass-to-fuel systems. This chapter reviews the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) for environmental evaluation of emerging microalgal biofuels. Several prominent environmental performance indicators including carbon footprint, energy return on ...

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