|
| Positive | Negative |
|
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
| (i) Algal-oil processes into biodiesel as easy as oil derived from land-based crops. | (i) Difficult to find an algal strain with a high lipid content and fast growth rate that is not too difficult to harvest, cost-effective and that is best suited to region where it is going to be produced (genetic modified species could be a solution, but it causes another threat) |
| (ii) Algae are the fastest-growing plants in the world. The per unit area yield of oil from algae is estimated to be 7–31 times greater than the next best crop, palm oil | (ii) Not the same species for different regions |
| Internal | (iii) Algae consume carbon dioxide as they grow | (iii) Still commercially immature technology: no many large-scale companies in production |
| (iv) Algae are very important as a biomass source | (iv) Environmental sustainability of algae-based biofuel is still uncertain due to insufficient data and not many Life Cycle Assessment (LCAs) have been made |
| (v) Algae can be grown almost anywhere, even on sewage or salt water and do not require fertile land or food crops | (v) Extraction and processing is still expensive compared to other biofuels |
| | (vi) Large-scale production could present many other drawbacks compared to those found in laboratory experiments |
|
| Opportunities | Threats |
| (i) Possibility of production of other higher value products for commercialization [28] and access other markets | (i) If future demand for biofuels fall radically, this industry could face bankruptcy |
| (ii) Subsidies and policies could turn this technology economically feasible | (ii) Market and societal acceptance is still unclear |
| External | (iii) As algae consume carbon dioxide as they grow, they could be used to capture CO2 from power stations and other industrial plants that would otherwise go into the atmosphere | (iii) If genetically modified, it could generate regulatory limitations and societal disavowal |
| (iv) Integrated algae-based biorefinery model could be adopted | (iv) Diffusion difficulties: the large number of competing fuels could delay algal biofuels to achieve high growth on the basis of cost |
| (v) Algae-based fuel properties allow the use in jet fuels | |
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