The National Research Council proposes to appoint a committee to examine the promise of sustainable development of algal biofuels, identify potential concerns and unforeseen sustainability challenges and unintended consequences for a range of approaches to algal biofuels production, explore ways to address those challenges, and suggest appropriate indicators, and metrics that can inform future assessments of environmental performance and social acceptance associated with sustainability. Although economics is an important aspect of sustainability, the study will not assess costs of algal biofuels. Algal biofuels production approaches and technical systems are still emerging, and facilities have not reached commercial scale. Public data on the economics of algal biofuels production is sparse. Therefore, it is premature for the committee to conduct generalized economic analyses of algal biofuels.
The committee will:

1. Identify the potential sustainability concerns for commercial production (including larger centralized and smaller distributed facilities) of algal biofuels associated with a selected number of different pathways of biomass production and conversion. Potential concerns to be addressed could include the availability and use of land, water, and nutrient resources, human health and safety associated with feedstock cultivation and processing, potential toxicity associated with algal metabolites and their adverse impacts on downstream co-products, and other impacts that are of social and environmental concern.

2. Identify information or data gaps related to the impacts of algal biofuels production.

3. Suggest indicators and metrics to be used to assess sustainability concerns across the algal biofuels supply chain and data to be collected now to establish baseline and to assess sustainability. Identify indicators that are most critical to address or have the greatest potential for improvement through DOE intervention. This input will inform DOE EERE-OBP’s broader analysis of biofuels and bioenergy sustainability.

4. Using selected approaches as illustrations, discuss whether any, or combinations of, the identified challenges could present major sustainability concerns.

Are there preferred cost and benefit analyses that could best aid in the decision-making process, and could those decisions be performance based and technology neutral?

The committee will conduct a review of published literature on assessing environmental sustainability of algal biofuels production. If available published literature is insufficient to satisfy the study requirements, the committee will solicit information from federal and state agencies, environmental groups, companies, and other organizations involved in R&D and implementation of S&T, systems, and processes for production of algal biofuels and feedstocks in order to get an idea of ongoing and planned research on related environmental sustainability. The committee will write a report addressing its statement of task and supporting its conclusions and recommendations.