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Resource | Pros | Cons | Types | Key points |
|
Halophytes (micro and macro) | (i) Salt water and brackish water tolerant | (i) Requires more farming | Seashore mallow | (i) Seawater irrigation |
(ii) Byproducts are very useful for other purposes | (ii) Undeveloped agriculture and aquaculture | (ii) Harvested using conventional equipment |
(iii) Cost effective | | Salicornia | (i) Growth in various saltwater environments |
(iv) Good near term solution | | | |
|
| (i) Includes crops such as soybeans, canola, rapeseed | (i) Weeds require developed agriculture | Camelina | (i) Matures in 85–105 days, yield 3.2 tonne/ha 35%–45% oil |
| | | (ii) Crop residue potential as pyrolysis fuel |
| | | (iii) Grows in nutrient poor soil |
| | | Pennycress | (i) 0.25 tonne/ha oil seed with 36% oil/seed |
| | | (ii) potential to produce 920 L-biodiesel/ha |
Weed-to-Crop | | | (iii) competes with arable land and fresh water resources |
| | | Castor | (i) Nonedible |
| | | (ii) Low water demand |
| | | (iii) 40%–60% seed oil content by mass |
| | | (iv) 90% reduction in GHG |
| | | (v) Seed contains ricin |
|
| (i) Good candidates for pyrolysis or fermentation fuels (ii) 1 ton of biomass produces 100 gal of ethanol | (i) Negative environmental impact if harvested (erosion and overall decrease in soil health possible) (ii) Large-scale production is challenging | Water hyacinth | (i) Noxious weed (ii) Remediates waste water (iii) Source of pyrolysis fuels (iv) 5–10 kg-biomass/m2-yr |
Lignocellulosic (includes crop residues) | | | Kudzu | (i) Noxious weed (ii) Pyrolysis benefits similar to water hyacinth |
| | | Honge | (i) Produce oil seeds for processing into biodiesel (ii) Tolerate brackish water (iii) Little nitrogen fertilizer needed |
|
Algae | (i) Prolific producers | (i) Marine: difficult to modify | Varieties | (i) Tolerates salt-water (ii) Enormous lipid potential as cellulosic fuel and food potential |
(ii) Enhanced percentage oil/biomass | (ii) Wavelength and time of exposure of light affect productivity |
(iii) Enhanced solar spectra absorption | (iii) Costly |
(iv) Environmental adaptivity | (iv) Large volume of growth needed to meet full demand |
| (v) Large area to manage |
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