Dataset: The implications of microalgae biofuel production for the heavy-duty transport sector under planetary boundary perspective

Dataset of the article: "The implications of microalgae biofuel production for the heavy-duty transport sector under planetary boundary perspective"

• Selected results of the analysis are included in Microalgae biofuel results.zip

Summary:

In this contribution, we study the extent to which 68 scenarios for microalgae biofuels could help the heavy-duty transport sector operate within planetary boundaries. The proposed scenarios are built considering a range of alternative configurations based on three types of fuel production processes (i.e., transesterification, hydrodeoxygenation and hydrothermal liquefaction), different carbon sources (such us a natural gas power plants and direct air capture), byproduct treatments, and two electricity mixes. Our results reveal that microalgae biofuels could significantly reduce the environmental and human health impacts of the business-as-usual (fossil-based) heavy-duty transport sector. Moreover, relative to standard biofuels that show large land-use requirements, we find that microalgae biofuels also decrease the damage on biosphere integrity substantially. Notably, pathways resorting to hydrodeoxygenation of microalgae oil and direct air capture and carbon storage could reduce the current impact induced globally on climate change by the heavy transport by 77%, while attaining six-fold reductions in biosphere integrity impacts, both relative to conventional biofuels. Simultaneously, microalgae-based biofuels can achieve impacts six times lower than conventional biofuels in biosphere integrity and 45% lower in human health.