Int. Journal of Renewable Energy Development 2 (3) 2013: 105-113 Page | 105 © IJRED – ISSN: 2252-4940, 31 October 2013, All rights reserved Contents list available at IJRED website Int. Journal of Renewable Energy Development (IJRED) Journal homepage: http://ejournal.undip.ac.id/index.php/ijred The Costs of Producing Biodiesel from Microalgae in the Asia-Pacific Region G.J. Griffin a* , D.F. Batten b , T. Beer b and P.K. Campbell c a School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA b CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Aspendale, AUSTRALIA c University of Tasmania, Hobart, AUSTRALIA Article history: Received Sept 8, 2013 Received in revised form Sept 27,2013 Accepted October 3, 2013 Available online ABSTRACT: Capital and operating cost estimates for converting microalgae to oil or biodiesel are compared. These cost comparisons are based on Australian locations, which are expected to fall at the lower end of the cost spectrum in the Asia-Pacific Region and other parts of the world. It is assumed that microalgae are grown in a concentrated saltwater medium in raceway ponds, then are harvested, dewatered and the oil is extracted and converted to biodiesel by transesterification. The size of the desired pond system affects the number of potential locations due to constraints in resource availability. Cost estimates vary significantly due to differences in the assumed oil productivity, the harvesting equipment and the method of converting residual biomass to electric power. A comparison is made with recent cost estimates from other parts of the world, in which the expected costs of microalgae oil production from a number of publicly available sources lay between 0.34–31.0 USD/L. The resulting cost estimates of between 1.37—2.66 USD/L are at the lower end of this scale, thereby confirming that Australia has the potential to be a low-cost producer of algal oil and biodiesel in the Asia-Pacific Region. It was significant that, despite similar assumptions for the microalgae-to-oil process, cost estimates for the final biodiesel or oil price differed by a factor of 2. This highlights the high degree of uncertainty in such economic predictions. Keywords: Asia-Pacific region; biodiesel; economics; microalgae * Corresponding author: Tel: +61 3 99252200 E-mail: gregory.griffin@rmt.edu.au 1. Introduction The exploitation of microalgae biomass to produce sustainable biofuels and, thereby, supplant conventional fossil fuels has attracted much attention in recent years. Compared to other, second generation biofuel sources, microalgae have considerable advantages – they can grow rapidly; yield more biofuel per hectare than terrestrial plants; contain little or no toxic substances; are biodegradable; can generate relatively low green-house gas (GHG) emissions, and do not compete directly with food production. However, there is a large degree of uncertainty in the economic feasibility of biofuel production as the efficient cultivation of microalgae is constrained by the availability of necessary resources. The large-scale cultivation of microalgae requires:  a robust microalgae species that grows rapidly, is easily harvested and contains large amounts of extractable oil;  year round warm sunlight and insolation;  a sustainable source of nutrients (primarily carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous);  a sustainable water supply, and;  large areas of flat land, preferably in arid regions unsuitable for agriculture. Van Harmelen & Oonk (2006) examined the availability of the latter four resources on a global scale. The constraints used were:  that the growing regions would need to be in the area between 37 north and south latitude