TECHNO-ECOLOGICAL SYNERGY: A FRAMEWORK FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH ALGAE PRODUCTION SYSTEMS WITH REFERENCE TO HAUZ KHAS LAKE

Abstract

Local communities typically discharge treated or untreated wastewater into water bodies such as lakes and ponds. Consequently, the development of algal blooms in the water bodies due to the discharge of effluents, poses a serious challenge to the well-being of the aquatic ecosystem. Several Indian lakes and ponds are fully covered with significant microalgal blooms throughout the year. However, these algal blooms can turn out to be beneficial and could act as a potential feedstock for bioenergy generation. Open ponds serve as the simplest system for microalgae cultivation as algae cultured here are under their natural habitat conditions. The requirement of CO2 to promote algal growth can be considered as a CO2 abatement service by these ponds. The Hauz Khas lake in New Delhi, India, is an excellent example of eutrophication caused by treated STP effluent discharge. The algal biomass from Hauz Khas Lake could be used as a biofuel feedstock because it contains enough nutrients to sustain abundant microalgal growth all year. The microalgae cultured in this study is further processed to produce biofuel utilizing the biofuel process pathway: hydrothermal liquefaction(HTL) followed by hydro-treating of bio-crude. A biofuel plant is assumed to be located around the Hauz Khas lake area. The ultimate goal of this work is to assess the sustainability of the entire system utilizing the framework of Techno Ecological Synergy in Life Cycle Assessment(TES-LCA). The life cycle environmental impacts of microalgal biofuel will be quantified by consideration of ecosystems’ capacity to mitigate these impacts, providing novel insights about environmental sustainability. Besides, the TES-LCA results of microalgal biofuel suggest the important role of ecosystems.