Life cycle energy and greenhouse gas profile of a process for the production of ammonium sulfate from nitrogen-fixing photosynthetic cyanobacteria

College

Gokongwei College of Engineering

Department/Unit

Chemical Engineering

Document Type

Article

Source Title

Bioresource Technology

Volume

107

First Page

339

Last Page

346

Publication Date

3-1-2012

Abstract

In this paper, an alternative means for nitrogen fixation that may consume less energy and release less greenhouse gases than the Haber-Bosch process is explored. A life-cycle assessment was conducted on a process to: culture the cyanobacterium, Anabaena sp. ATCC 33047, in open ponds; harvest the biomass and exopolysaccharides and convert these to biogas; strip and convert the ammonia from the biogas residue to ammonium sulfate; dry the ammonium sulfate solution to ammonium sulfate crystals and transport the finished product. The results suggest that substantial reductions in non-renewable energy use and greenhouse gas emissions may be realized. The study opens the possibility that Haber-Bosch ammonia may be replaced with ammonia from a biomass process which simultaneously generates renewable energy. The process is intrinsically safer than the Haber-Bosch process. However, there are trade-offs in terms of land use and possibly, water. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.

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Digitial Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1016/j.biortech.2011.12.075

Disciplines

Chemical Engineering

Keywords

Nitrogen—Fixation; Anabaena; Cyanobacteria; Greenhouse gas mitigation; Life cycles (Biology)

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