Interdependence of Financing Parameters and Processing Improvements in the Design of Economically Competitive Algal Biofuel Production Pathways

Financing parameters have often been considered exogenous variables in techno-economic analyses of algal biofuels production systems; these parameters reflect investment risk, a function of the processing techniques used and uncertain regulatory support, and are therefore linked to biorefinery design and current policy. Variations in financing parameters, representing regulatory policies (e.g. tax credits, loan guarantees, accelerated depreciation methods) and a range of investment risk are modeled to evaluate the impact of each on the economic competitiveness of novel algal biofuel processing techniques. The benefits from financing improvements are found to increase with the percent of the annual production cost from capital expenses, effectively incentivizing the development of processes which increase the ratio of annual capital to operating expenses. The availability of incentives and feasibility of investment risk reduction therefore impacts the choice of sub-process alternatives in the design of algal biofuel production systems for maximal cost competitiveness with conventional fuels.Master of Scienc