Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

An economic and technical evaluation of microalgal biofuels

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Sensitivity analysis.

References

  1. Waltz, E. Nat. Biotechnol. 27, 15–18 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Mascarelli, A. Nature 461, 460–461 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Melis, A. Plant Sci. 177, 272–280 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Weissman, J.C. & Goebel, R.P. Design and Analysis of Pond Systems for the Purpose of Producing Fuels (Solar Energy Research Institute, Golden, Colorado, SERI/STR-231–2840, 1987).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Benemann, J.R. & Oswald, W.J. Systems and Economic Analysis of Microalgae Ponds for Conversion of CO2 to Biomass. Final Report to the Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center. Grant no. DE-FG22–93PC93204 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Huggett, B. Nat. Biotechnol. 26, 1208–1209 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. McFarland, J.R., Reilly, J.M. & Herzog, H.J. Energy Econ. 26, 685–707 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Zhu, Z., Graham, P., Reedman, L. & Lo, T.A. Decis. Econ. Finance 32, 35–48 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Anonymous. World Population Data Sheet (Population Reference Bureau, Washington, DC, 2009). http://www.prb.org/pdf09/09wpds_eng.pdf

  10. Anonymous. Soziale und Demographische Daten zur Weltbevölkerung (Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung, Hannover, Germany, 2009). http://www.dsw-online.de/pdf/dsw_datenreport_09.pdf

  11. Huntley, M.E. & Redalje, D.G. Mitig. Adapt. Strategies Glob. Change 12, 573–608 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Australian Research Council, IMBcom, and the economic advice of Liam Wagner.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ben Hankamer.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors on this paper are part of, or have worked with, either the Solar Biofuels Consortium (http://www.solarbiofuels.org), IMBcom or other commercial entities developing microalgal biofuel technologies. The authors' work was supported through both industry collaborations and grants. However, the economic models are based almost exclusively on peer-reviewed data, unless stated otherwise, and these are fully referenced to the relevant articles for transparency.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figs. 1, 2, Supplementary Table 1, Supplementary Data and Supplementary Box 1 (PDF 615 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Stephens, E., Ross, I., King, Z. et al. An economic and technical evaluation of microalgal biofuels. Nat Biotechnol 28, 126–128 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0210-126

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0210-126

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research