Application of Analytic Hierarchy Process in the Selection of Botryococcus braunii Cultivation Technology for Bio-crude Oil Production

Abstract

Bio-crude oil is a way to utilize bioenergy that can reduce the Indonesian government's dependence on fossil energy. Bio-crude oil can be obtained by carrying out a thermochemical process of biomass. Microalgae is a potential source of biomass and Botryococcus braunii is one of the promising types of microalgae for this matter. One of the units required in the conversion process of microalgae into bio-crude oil is the cultivation unit. The objective of this study is to determine the most effective and optimal cultivation technology to be applied to the bio-crude oil refinery plant. Location of the cultivation system is in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia. A study was conducted for this purpose using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The cultivation systems proposed to be the alternatives were open raceway pond, flat panel photo-bioreactor, hybrid, and membrane photo-bioreactor. The AHP results showed that the open raceway pond was selected to be applied to the bio-crude oil refinery process. The biomass production potential of Botryococcus braunii from the cultivation unit in this study was 19.8795 ton/year/ha which could be processed into 11.5301 ton of bio-crude oil with a high heating value (HHV) of 553,448.8 MJ.