Patrick Knight
GIS Assignment 7
1
Best Siting for Algae Biofuel Farms
Report Description
This project will is concerned with identifying ideal locations to site biofuel algae farms.
Although much has been made of the facts that algae does not need much water to grow and is
ideally cultivated in areas with plentiful solar radiation, I am also interested in seeing if the
presence of infrastructure could reveal other areas well-suited for growing algae. Furthermore,
I’d like to be able to calculate the potential ethanol yield from the areas selected. Because I want
to identify regions for farming outside the normally selected (the Southwest), I plan on working
with a national-level dataset.
Examples of Similar Analyses
1. Modeling Sites Suitable for Small Wind Turbines
https://wikis.uit.tufts.edu/confluence/download/attachments/21040437/Moodie_Jim.pdf
This was a GIS project done by Jim Moodie in 2007. I’m interested in how he
used spatial joining to combine information about areas available along for turbine siting
with the parcel data. I also see his use of the wind speed map being closely analogous to
my own use of a solar insolation map.
2. GIS Applications for Wind Generation
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgis
data.nrri.umn.edu%2FGISLIS%2F2006presentations%2FGIS%2520Applications%2520f
or%2520Wind%2520Generation%2520Final%2520StCloud.ppt&ei=57iASdOkFtBtwfY5qzwCw&usg=AFQjCNHxN8pR8vcaf2SQa80BYj7JQsRn7g&sig2=jB7vVW3a7
hKedZJBitFYWA
In this article, the authors have used the query by location tool in order to discover
the best sites for wind turbines with respect to transmission lines. Although in both
examples they discuss (Minnesota and San Diego County), they begin with identifying
the best wind sources in each area, the final constraint they implement on their studies is
an infrastructure-based one.
3. Project Vulcan
http://www.purdue.edu/eas/carbon/vulcan/fossil.2005.pdf
http://www.purdue.edu/eas/carbon/vulcan/plots.php
Project Vulcan aims to pinpoint the major carbon dioxide production regions on a
national scale. It uses both point data and raster data to illustrate the locations and
magnitudes of carbon dioxide emissions. Although this project does not go into linking
other information or data sets (such as best sites for carbon sequestration or areas most
needing stringent emissions laws) to these shapefiles, I would attempt to incorporate this
data to help show one way the carbon dioxide emissions found by Project Vulcan could
be reduced.
4. Ethanol technical potential in Hawaii based on sugarcane, banagrass, Eucalyptus, and
Leucaena
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V22-4T9BXGG1&_user=201547&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C0000140
Patrick Knight
GIS Assignment 7
2
58&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=201547&md5=8ac3374de4bb0f187763569ab1
d39b0b
This paper discusses best sites for different crops used in biomass production in
Hawaii based on GIS analysis. Using a land suitability analysis, weights and ranks for
different constraints were utilized to determine these best sites. One part of this report I
find especially interesting is that it uses data on average crop yields to calculate the
amount of biomass and ethanol that would be created with the recommended sites.
Methods
I plan on using attribute and location-based queries to identify the best sites for algae
with respect to insolation and infrastructure. Similar to the article “Using the conceptual model
to create a suitability map”, I’d like to show not just Boolean true and false areas, but areas of
intermediate suitability. Additionally, I will be using geocoding and spatial joins to link
information on carbon dioxide emitters and sewage treatment facilities to be used in these
queries. I would like to end up with a density map – one that shows the concentration of ideal
variables for algae cultivation and one that shows the highest potential yields for ethanol
production. I am, however, open to other ideas about ways to display my final results most
effectively.
Data Layers Needed
As all this data will be done on a national scale, high spatial accuracy is not especially
needed. As long as the data is accurate to the county level, I would find it acceptable.
Solar insolation shapefile
Carbon dioxide emitters shapefile
Sewage treatment sites shapefile
National highways shapefile
Electricity transmission lines shapefile