Evaluation of biodiesel production from algae in photobioreactor - exergetic, exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental methodologies
Exergy, photobioreactor, biodiesel production, microalgae, exergoeconomy, exergoenvironmental
The environmental problems caused by fossil fuels aren’t a new thing. In the search for alternatives to diesel, biodiesel from algae shows itself as a great alternative because of the capture of CO2 practiced by the algae during their production, their rapid reproduction, among others. The present work aims to make an exergetic, exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental analyses of the production of biodiesel from algae. For this, mass, energy, exergy, exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental balances are made, in these last the specific costing methodology (SPECO) was used, specific costs, exergoeconomic factor, exergy destruction and exergetic efficiency were also calculated. With these parameters, it is possible to detect the equipment that has the worst performance and suggest changes in order to make the system as a whole more efficient. The equipment that had the worst exergetic performance was the photobioreactor, presenting lower exergetic efficiency (10.73%) and being responsible for (99.33%) of all exergy destroyed in the production of algae biodiesel. Algae biodiesel is shown to be a great alternative to diesel and more studies in order to optimize its production should be done with the objective of making it more economically viable and improving its exergetic performance.