Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Impact Of Heavy Metal Contamination From Coal Flue Gas On Microalgae Biofuel And Biogas Production Through Multiple Conversion Pathways, Derek E. Hess

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Microalgae has a great potential to help alleviate the world's current dependence on fossil fuels. Microalgae is a single celled organism that produces lipids as a food storage device much like humans and animals store fat. These lipids are a kind of oil that when harvested can be utilized as biofuel.

As the technology surrounding using microalgae as a source of biofuel has advanced key bottlenecks in the eventual large-scale production of microalgae based biofuel have been discovered. One of these bottlenecks is the need to cheaply supply carbon for microalgae growth. One idea that has emerged as a plausible …

Techno-Economic Feasibility And Life Cycle Assessment Of Dairy Effluent To Biofuel Via Hydrothermal Liquefaction, Hailey M. Summers

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Delactosed whey permeate (delac) is a low valued by-product in the dairy industry with 90 million tons annually disposed of worldwide. Upgrading delac to bioproducts, specifically biofuel, has been demonstrated at laboratory scale through yeast fermentation. However, the large-scale environmental impact and economic feasibility of this process is yet to be quantified. Further research, focused on evaluating the sustainability, scalability and economic feasibility of the fermentation pathway, directs research and development to move the technology towards commercialization. The enclosed research incorporates biological experimentation with engineering systems modeling to evaluate the large-scale environmental impacts and economic feasibility of generating bioproducts from …

Global Evaluation Of Biofuel Potential From Microalgae, Jeffrey W. Moody

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The objective of the proposed work is to determine the productivity potential of microalgae around the world based on the current large uncertainty of the productivity
potential found in literature. To achieve this objective, a validated thermal and biological growth model was utilized coupled with weather data files from weather stations around the world. This enabled a realistic assessment of the productivity potential based on actual climatic variables. Sensitivity of microalgae lipid productivity to biomass production, temperature, and variability was performed illustrating the importance of biological and temporal resolution. Results from modeling work were leveraged for a scalability assessment based …

Nutrient And Carbon-Dioxide Requirements For Large-Scale Microalgae Biofuel Production, Benjamin K. Shurtz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ever-increasing fuel prices and a limited supply of oil worldwide are threatening our economy and way of life in both the near and distant future. In order to reduce oil
dependence, the US Department of Energy (DOE) has established a goal that by the year 2030, 30% of the US transportation fuel will be renewable. The goal equates to
approximately 60 billion gallons per year of renewable fuel.

In an effort to reach the DOE renewable fuel goal, numerous types of plants are being studied, whose oil can be harvested and refined to serve as replacement fuel.
Among the various …