Algal food and fuel coproduction can mitigate greenhouse gas emissions while improving land and water-use efficiency
Walsh, Michael J.; Gerber Van Doren, Léda; Sills, Deborah L.; Archibald, Ian; Beal, Colin M.; Lei, Xin Gen; Huntley, Mark E.; Johnson, Zackary; Greene, Charles H.
The goals of ensuring energy, water, food, and climate security can often conflict.Microalgae (algae) are
being pursued as a feedstockfor both food and fuels—primarily due to algae’s high areal yield and ability
to grow on non-arable land, thus avoiding common bioenergy-food tradeoffs. However, algal cultivation
requires significant energy inputs that may limit potential emission reductions.We examine the tradeoffs
associated with producing fuel andfood from algae at the energy–food–water–climate nexus.We use the
GCAM integrated assessment model to demonstrate that algalfood production can promote reductions
in land-use change emissions through the offset of conventional agriculture. However,fuel production,
either via co-production of algal food and fuel or complete biomass conversion to fuel, is necessary to
ensure long-term emission reductions, due to the high energy costs of cultivation. Cultivation of salt–
water algae for food products may lead to substantial freshwater savings; but, nutrients for algae
cultivation will need to be sourced from waste streams to ensure sustainability. By reducing the land
demand of food production, while simultaneously enhancingfood and energy security, algae can further
enable the development of terrestrial bioenergy technologies including those utilizing carbon capture and
storage. Our results demonstrate that large-scale algae research and commercialization efforts should
focus on developing both food and energy products to achieve environmental goals.
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