The mass and energy balance include the demand for nitrogen,
phosphorus, carbon dioxide supply and electricity consumption.
Carbon dioxide demand is determined by the carbon demand for
algae growth and CO2 outgassing. Carbon dioxide outgassing is
triggered by elevated CO2 concentrations in growth medium required
for high algae growth, see Section 3. For raceway ponds, a
utilisation efficiency of 60% is considered to compensate for the
outgassing of CO2 [31]. With proper pH control and novel CO2 supply
systems the utilisation efficiency can be improved [37], but no
quantitative information was found on the potential increase in
utilisation efficiency. In this research the energy consumption of