Browsing by Author "Rubilar Villarroel, Natalia Andrea"

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    Huella hídrica del proceso de producción de biocombustible a partir de microalgas en Chile.
    (Universidad de Concepción, 2023) Rubilar Villarroel, Natalia Andrea; Zaror Zaror, Claudio Alfredo
    In recent years, the production of biofuels from microalgae has attracted considerable attention as an option for obtaining cleaner energy, in the context of the fight against climate change. However, there is controversy about its potential environmental impacts since its cultivation requires a considerable amount of water and fertilizers that could cause negative effects on ecosystems. In this context, the objective of this research is to quantify the water footprint and other environmental impacts of biodiesel production from the microalgae Phaedactylum tricornutum in a pilot plant located in Concepción. This work uses a life cycle approach, taking ISO 14046 as a methodological reference. The impact categories water available remaining available water (AWARE), water stress index (WSI), water depletion index (WDI), eutrophication and freshwater ecotoxicity, carcinogenic and non carcinogenic human toxicity were evaluated using SimaPro v.9.4.0 software and the Ecoinvent database version 3.8. A water footprint equal to 8.16 m3 water/kg biodiesel was obtained, where 62% corresponds to direct water consumption and about 90% is related to the cultivation stage. On the other hand, it was obtained that the WSI is equal to 0.16 m3 which indicates that the water stress threshold is acceptable; the WDI is equal to 0.02 m3 indicating that there is a low risk of a depletion of water resources and a value for the AWARE method equal to 5.02 m3 showing that there is no greater demand for water than what is available in the area. Also, using the ReCiPe 2016 (H) assessment method, it was concluded that the drying (31%), cultivation (22%) and harvesting (17%) stages are the main contributors in freshwater eutrophication, due to the amount of electricity used in drying and the amount of phosphorus and nitrogen emitted in the wastewater during cultivation and harvesting. The cultivation stage is also the main contributor in the freshwater ecotoxicity and human toxicity impact categories, due to the emission of toxic substances such as Zinc and Chromium VI. The sensitivity analysis indicates that energy consumption and transport distance are the parameters that most affect the environmental performance of the process. Finally, it is concluded that the pilot plant is a potential site for biofuels production from microalgae, since the water footprint of the process is lower than indicated by the literature or that of other biofuel plants, and the environmental impacts can be reduced through a wastewater treatment system.
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