For ideal conditions, roughly 70 g of nitrogen are required for each kg of algal biomass [15,17,44]. In the experiments, 0.20 kg of nitrogen was con­sumed per kLp. This amount translates to 77 kg of nitrogen per L of bio­oil produced (which is 769 g of N per kg of algal biomass). In the Highly Productive scenario (with 1 kg of algal biomass/kL of processed volume, 70 g of N per kL of processed volume, and 0.26 L of bio-oil per kLp) 0.27 kg of N are required per L of bio-oil produced, or 5.1 * 109 kg of N would be required for 19 GL of bio-oil (5 Bgal), which is 45% ofthe total amount of nitrogen fertilizer consumed in the U. S. annually [43].

5.3.6.2 ELECTRICITY

In the Experimental Case, 2.4 GJ of electricity were consumed per kLp, resulting in ~0.92 * 1012 J of electricity consumption per L of bio-oil. In the Highly Productive Case, 2.59 MJ of electricity is consumed per kLp, which yields 0.26 L of bio-oil. Thus, 9.9 MJ of electricity would be con­sumed per L of bio-oil, or 0.19 EJ per year for 19 GL of bio-oil per year (5 Bgal/yr). This amount is 1.3% of the annual U. S. electricity generation in 2009 [41].